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ELL'S LITERATURE SERIES No. 124. 



25 Cents. 



a DELSARTEAN 



SCRAP-BOOK 




MR. AND MRS. EDMUND RUSSELL 



UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

ISO WORTH ST., NEW YORK. 

T*«ued Weekly. Annual Subscription, $15.00. Nov. 28, 1890 

Entered at the New York Post Office as second-class mail matter. 



Prose Dramas of Henrik Ibsen. 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 

Price per Volume, Cloth, $1.00 ; Paper, 50 Cents. 

With Critical and Biographical introduction by EDMUND GOSSE. 



Part I. — Containing : "A Doll's House," "The Pillars of Society," 
"Ghosts," "kothmersholm." 

Part II. — Containing : " The Lady from the Sea," "An Enemy of 
Society," "The Wild Duck," and "The Young Men's 
League." 

There is a deep and solemn tone running through all these dramas, 
as though the author were saying, like Hamlet, that the times were 
out of joint; but he does not admit that it is his duty or mission to 
set them right. He takes things as he finds them, and in consequence 
his plays, without being immoral, may be characterized with propriety 
as unmoral. The plays should be read and studied, not merely because 
of their novelty but for the sake of the philosophy which they contain, 
and to grasp the ideas of an author who isundoubtedly a man of genius. 

It is not easy to classify these dramas, although they fall naturally 
into a single class. They differ materially from most modern plays, 
chiefly because there is no artificiality about them. They are hard, 
stern and even cruel in their portraiture of human passion and human 
weakness. Ibsen has the courage of his convictions, and does not 
shrink from depicting what he believes to be the natural consequences 
of human conduct. 

NOTICES FROM THE PRESS. 

" America has lagged a long way behind Europe in realizing that the 
Norwegian dramatist, Ibsen, is a genius. But having at last discovered 
that the rest of the world considers him a great writer, we seem to 
have determined to make up for being belated by now talking a great 
deal about him." — The Nation. 

"There is a deal of power in Ibsen."— A 7 : Y. Mail and Express. 

"They are sombre and sad, but powerfully conceived and written, 
and decidedly worth reading." — New York Sun. 

"The interest of the Christian Union in Ibsen antidates the recent 
development of popular interest in this country and we have already said 
so much about him that it is unnecessary at this time to characterize 
him further." — Christian Union. 

" Few if any, male writers have given us so true or so high a concep- 
tion of womanhood as does Ibsen."— Religio Philos. Journal. 

" To read him Is the latest "craze" in the literary and semi-literary 
worlds." — Ftiblic Opinion. 

" What is called the Ibsen craze is still abroad."— Com'l Gazette, 
Cincinnati. 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY. 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

142 TO 150 WORTH STREET, NEW YORK. 



Delsartean Scrap-book 



HEALTH, PERSONALITY, 
BEAUTY, HOUSE-DECORATION, DRESS, ETC. 

COMPILED &Y 

FREDERIC SANBURN 

WITH A PREFACE BY 

WALTER CRANE 



" I believe in the human being, mind and flesh, form and soul. 

To be shapely of form is so infinitely beyond wealth, power, fame, all that 
ambition can give, that these are dust before it. 

" I believe — I do more than think — I believe it to be a sacred duty, incum- 
bent upon every one, man and woman, to add to and encourage their physical 
life by exercise, and in every manner. Each one of us should do some little 
part for the physical good of the race — health, strength, vigor. There is no 
harm therein to the soul : on the contrary, those who stunt their physical life 
are most certainly stunting their souls." — Richard Jeffries. 

The great law of culture is : Let each become all that he was created 
capable of being. — Carlyle. 



NEW YORK 
UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

142 TO 150 WORTH STREET 



^\\Ur 






Copyrighted, 1890, 

BY 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 



Brt sboulo interest b£ tbe true. 

Brt sboulD move bg tbe beautiful. 

Brt sboulD persuaoe b£ tbe gooo. 

Brt sboulo 

Unterest bg tbe true to illumine tbe intelligence. 

nsovc b£ tbe beautiful to regenerate tbe life. 
Ipersuaoe bg tbe £000 to perfect tbe beart. 

— Delsarte. 



" not stark and stiffened persons, but the 

new-born poetry of God — poetry without stop, 
poetry still flowing, not yet caked in dead books 
with annotations and grammar, but Apollo 
and the Muses chanting still." — Emerson. 



"The young- citizens must not be allowed to grow up 
amongst images of evil, lest their souls assimilate the ugli- 
ness of their surroundings. Rather they should be like 
men living in a beautiful and healthy place ; from every- 
thing that they see and hear, loveliness, like a breeze, 
should pass into their souls, and teach them without their 
knowing it the truth of which beauty is a manifestation." — 
Plato. 



" I am only solicitous about one 
thing, and that is lest I should do 
something that the constitution of 
man does not permit, or in the way 
or time it does not permit." — Mar- 
cus Aurelius. 



PREFACE. 



fHE gospel of beauty gains an ever wider 
hearing: its message is, indeed, a much- 
^ needed one in the modern world, which is 
apt to shut its eyes to all that distracts from the 
main business (or the whole duty) of man — to 
make mone} 7 . Until it is discovered that the fac- 
ulties which are concentrated on the supreme 
ideal of " making a pile " — to say nothing of the 
faculties consumed in the pitiful struggle for a 
bare subsistence — are not in condition, or per- 
haps are the very reverse of those wanted in the 
sympathetic recognition and cultivation of things 
beautiful. 

The half-awakened eye needs guidance in its 
search of a response to the appeal of aesthetic im- 
pressions: and since, in a mechanical methodical 
age, the body as w r ell as the mind has a tendency 
to become specialized, and with cramping, fixed 
habits, grace and ease of movement become diffi- 
cult and rare, as natural and expressive action 
disappears with natural conditions of life : so that 
in our complex and unlovely civilization the laws 



VI PEEFACE. 

of harmony, the sense of art, the language of line 
and curve, in the expression of beauty are only 
slowly recovered, if at all, by careful and con- 
scious study. 

With the gradual, and in some cases complete, 
removal of life from the beauty of wild nature 
in big cities, the loss of the daily countless im- 
pressions of beauty — of harmony of colors and 
stimulus to the imagination, common to a life in 
the woods and fields, is hardly, perhaps, appre- 
ciated in its full meaning, especially in the effect 
of its absence in early life when impressions of 
all kinds are strong. All these causes, daily and 
hourly at work, with habits of mind and body, 
cramping and mechanical conditions of work, in- 
door life, a restricted space and movement — all 
these causes can only be counteracted or miti- 
gated in any degree by a study of the laws and 
expression of beauty. And therefore a work such 
as that of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Kussell should 
be especially valuable. 

Few indeed are more constant and devoted ex- 
ponents of this gospel of beauty of which I have 
spoken, and as lecturers they have done much to 
elucidate, and to simplify by familiar illustrations 
in common life, in speech, bearing, and action, and 
domestic decoration those principles of beauty 
which underlie all varieties of its manifestation in 
life as in art. Indeed as exponents of the system 
of Delsarte, they aim, I believe, to reduce the laws 



PKEFACE. Vil 

of graceful movement and appropriate dramatic 
expression and action to almost scientific pre- 
cision and definiteness. 

Now, while I do not believe that the faculty 
for art in its positive, or creative and inventive 
sense, can be taught, yet on its negative side, 
certain principles can be laid down which would 
prevent at least mistakes being made. 

Preaching, alone, will not save a world; and 
if the world insists on the adoption of conditions 
of life and habit, law and custom, which tell 
against external beauty and its enjoyment, its 
votaries can but wear out their lives in protest, 
until the arts become extinct. 

But since the arts are human, and since the 
apple was given to Aphrodite, humanity all the 
world over, in all sorts and conditions own her 
power ; and I believe the appeal to the eye is too 
potent, and art too involved in life itself for the 
satisfaction of the one in the perfection of the 
other ever to cease to be ardently desired. 

This awakening of the sense of art, this in- 
creased sensibility to beauty — this new Renais- 
sance — shall we call it — that we are witnessing 
in our time, that has been slowly and silently 
growing these last ten or twenty years — what is 
its meaning ? Can it be merely owing to the in- 
crease of riches ? The uninformed possession of 
riches generally results in the smothering of the 
sense of art in luxury and vulgarity. No ! I be- 



Vlll PREFACE. 

lieve this awakening* search for beauty to be but 
a part of another movement — a rising* wave on 
the earth of aspiration for a fuller, freer, more 
humane, sympathetic and beautiful, if simple, 
life. A life now for the first time coming" within 
the bounds of possibility for the many, as more 
and more knowledge of art and of nature and 
refinement becomes diffused, and, united in com- 
munity of interests a command of the resources 
of material of life, the peoples of the earth be- 
come one kindred together. 



London, September, 1890. 




Table of contents. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT IS DELSARTIS1I ? 
(From the Phrenological Journal.') 
PREFACE by Walter Crane 



I. 

Delsarte's work— Man's nature and man's expression— " Tuning the 
instrument" — Words, tones, and gestures— The bow of the Queen 
of Italy— Gladstone and Dr. Richter— The aim of the Delsartean 
gymnastics— Quotations from Delsarte. 

II. 

The practical workings of the system— School gymnastics — Bad man- 
ners — Grace and elegance — How to train the body — A cure for 
nervousness — " Decomposing " exercises — How to rest — An Orien- 
tal prince and the English ladies— Edwin Forrest and Delsartism 
—The proper age and time for study 1 

CHAPTER II. 

ART EDUCATION. 

(From " Education in the Industrial and Fine Arts,' 1 '' published by U. S. 
Government.) 

Can good taste be acquired ?— The laws of beauty— The science of 
art-criticism— Prof. Walter Smith and industrial drawing — To 
understand the " reasons why " in art — Need of Delsartean teach- 
ings in our public schools 20 

CHAPTER III. 

HEALTH, NATURAL EXPRESSION, GRACE. 

I. 

Delsartean development— " Know thyself "—The different kinds of 
exercises — Grace— Rest — Sleep— Labor— Corpulency — " The pace 
that kills "—Vital economy— Broken-down old age. 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

II. 

PAGE 

Expression development— Life gives force, education should give ex- 
pression— Nerve-rest — Rhythm the law of health, growth, and 
beauty— The Delsartean gymnastics 27 

CHAPTER IV. 

PERSONALITY. 

(From the Northivestern Journal of Education.') 

The art of expression —Personal power— The meaning of Delsarte's 
teachings— His methods of studying nature— His discoveries in 
harmony with other scientific discoveries — Prof. Tomlin's in- 
quiry — Does the study of expression make one self-conscious ?— 
Self-consciousness or self-possession 34 

CHAPTER V. 

DELSARTISM IN ENGLAND. 

(From the Voice Magazine.) 

Owen Meredith— Sir Frederick Leighton— The elder Garcia— The 
secret of youth— How actors regard Delsartism— All good acting 
in harmony Avith its teachings— Robert Browning— Lamperti and 
his method— The German school of singing— Salvini, Rossi, and 
Ristori at home 41 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
(From the New York Home Journal.) 

Control at the centre — Freedom at the extremities— " Lift up your 
chest " — How to acquire the habit of breathing naturally — The 
child and the animal— Reserve power 52 

CHAPTER VII. 

DRESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WOMAN. 

(From Scribner's Magazine.) 

Dr. Sargent, of Harvard University, on physical development— The 
waist-line— The hips— The origin of lacing— The pure ideals of the 
early Greeks — Some physical experiments— A r° e for health — 
American women 59 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NATURAL HUMAN FIGURE. 
(From the London Homeopathic World.*) page 
A London letter— The role of the body in expression— The effect of 
disturbing harmony— Our eyes accustomed to discord- Tight 
lacing— Health, beauty, and expression dependent on perfect free- 
dom 66 

CHAPTER IX. 

A WOMAN ON WALKING. 

(From the New York Sunday Star.') 

The faulty carriage of belles of Broadway and Fifth Avenue — Walk- 
ing up-stairs— A society girl's lament — Walking naturally not 
necessarily walking beautifully— The anxiety and strain of the 
shopper— Nervousness versus dignity — Some suggestions as to the 
cure of certain natural defects 74 

CHAPTER X. 

ANOTHER WOMAN ON WALKING. 
(From the New York Mail and Express.) 

How one ought to walk in order to be graceful — How to gain strength 
and ease— Advantages in health and beauty to be derived from a 
proper carriage and gait— Exercises which develop the muscles 
all over the body, head, shoulders, chest, waist, knees, and feet, 
all concerned in the art of walking well— Methods of training each 
in turn 83 

CHAPTER XL 

A PRIVATE LESSON. 
(From the New York Sunday World.) 

Being aesthetically carved— Nell Nelson takes a lesson and tells her in- 
teresting experience in the New York World— Vanity completely 
crushed— The Delsartean's dissecting-room— Breathing and walk- 
ing—Falling as a pastime 91 

CHAPTER XII. 

FOR COMFORT IN DRESS. 

(From the Chicago Daily News.) 

Some ideas on men's clothes— The stupidity of modern fashions— The 
effect of fits— Linen, plush, and Oriental slippers — Some novel or- 
naments—A subtle compliment 102 



Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
WOMAN IN BLACK. 

(From the Chicago Tribune.') 

PAGE 

A popular fallacy— The traces of age— Street and house dressing- 
Colors for evening— How to wear jewels— Massive ornaments — 
Powder and rouge— The effect of ' ' make-up " 109 

CHAPTER XIV. 

MORE ABOUT BLACK. 

(From the New York Sunday Herald.) 

What it does to Mrs. Langtry and Mrs. Kendal— " Lace by the mile " 
—Diamonds— Girdles— Rings— Artistic dressing — Mme. Blavatsky 
—Marie Decker— The Indian princes 113 

CHAPTER XV. 

DRESS AND PERSONALITY. 

(From Harper's Bazar.) 

The gown and the wearer— What's wrong '—Different types of women 
and what they should wear— Cleopatras and tea-biscuits — Studies 
in color— Contrast or harmony— How to dress a stout woman. ... 119 

CHAPTER XVI. 

STYLE OR EXPRESSION. 

(From Syndicate Letter.) 

Tight-fitting garments— The lines of drapery— Design and ornament 
—The selection of brocades— Texture in dress— Fashion-plates are 
made for nobody in particular, the artistic dress studies the indi- 
vidual 126 

CHAPTER XVII. 

HOW I HEARD OF DELSARTE. 

(From the New York Graphic.) 

An adventure in a milliner's shop — Noses and bonnets— Learning to 
fly— The relation of dress to expression— Good taste — Artists' 
wives— Dress and the human body—" Coats of skin "—A Greek 
investigation , 130 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xlll 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
"gone daft on dress." 

(From the Chicago Evening Post.') 

PAGE 

The effect of the preceding chapter — Chicago ladies crazy on the sub- 
ject of being artistic — Edmund Russell to blame — Milliners say- 
that since he began lecturing there they cannot please their cus- 
tomers—Mrs. Hardcash and Miss Simperum — She wanted some- 
thing to carry out the color of her eyes 140 

CHAPTER XIX. 

IS A CHANGE IN DRESS IMPENDING ? 

(From the New York Mail and Express.) 
The Prince of Wales— The queen's drawing-room at Balmoral — Our 
present clothes ridiculous, inartistic, and uncomf ortable — Sir Ed- 
win Arnold at home — An Indian philosopher and the English 
ladies — Russian emigrants — Madame Ponisi's description of 
Rachel 146 

CHAPTER XX. 

A TALK ON HOUSE DECORATION. 

(From the Pittsburg Press.) 

A woman's description of another woman— How to arrange our walls- 
Striking contrasts call too much attention to themselves — Com- 
plexity in color— Black again— Practical art— What is conven- 
tionalization ? 152 

CHAPTER XXI. 

IVORY AND GOLD. 

(From the Decorator and Furnisher, New York.) 

The relation of objects— A copper dining-room — Complexion and wall- 
paper—A study in harmony— Frieze of magnolias— Painted por- 
tieres—A new simplicity 161 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE MAKING OF A HOME. 

(From the Decorator and Furnisher.) 
Our highest art-work — Walls or people — A dramatic study— The world 
in mourning — Picture-frames— Wall-paper— Decorations— Light- 
ing.etc... 166 



XIV TABLE OF COXTETSTTS. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PEACOCK DINING-ROOM. 

(From the Neiv York Mail and Express.') 

PAGE 

Foreign palaces and American homes— How houses should be deco- 
rated — The colors used should harmonize with the complexion 
of the hostess — Bric-a-brac must be selected carefully and not 
merely because it is pretty— Choosing pictures— Some famous 
rooms 171 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

HINTS ON ARTISTIC DINNER-TABLES. 

(From the Chicago Tribune.') 
Color in table decoration— An effective scheme— How to plan an ar- 
rangement of color — A red luncheon— Sevres and Dresden— A 
bachelor and his brocades — A new sandwich— Some noted dining- 
rooms , 178 

CHAPTER XXV. 

ARTISTIC LOVE-MAKING. 

(From the Detroit Free Press.) 

Man's three languages— Gesture speaks louder than words— "Words 
are the least part of language as far as utterance is concerned " — 
The child, the cat, and the lover 186 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
"the cause for divorce.'" • 

(From Syndicate Letter.) 

A new theory— An Indian poem— The effect of a starch diet — A trans- 
formation scene 191 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

IN LONDON TOWN. 

(From the Milwaukee Sentinel.) 

Pen sketch of Mrs. Edmund Russell and her receptions— A dream 
of a midsummer night in London— A Bayswater shrine— The 
countess and the Egyptologist— The violin-girl -A cosmopolitan 
gathering 193 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A TALK ABOUT PICTURES. 

(From the Chicago Tribune.') 

PAGE 

English gardens — " Stone walls do not a prison make "—The home of 
Holman Hunt— The pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their pur- 
pose — A protest against academic composition — The ''Triumph 
of the Innocents' '—Domestic subjects and gilded frames— The 
peasant pictures of Jean Francois Millet 205 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

CELEBRATED LONDON WOMEN. 

(From Syndicate Letter.) 

One must have fine personal character to be beautiful in old age — 
Mrs. Gladstone and the Baroness Burdette-Coutts — Lady Wilde 
and Mona Caird — Lady Shelley— John Strange Winter— The noted 
women novelists 214 

CHAPTER XXX. 

A LONDON STUDIO. 

(From Belgravia, New York.) 

An interview on the studio of Felix Moscheles— The cottage in Cado- 
gan Gardens — Spoons and bric-a-brac from America — An interest- 
ing portrait-gallery— The artist's personality — A studio bedroom. 220 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

SOME FAMOUS ART HOUSES. 

(From the Pall Mall Gazette.) 

Gladstone as a conversationalist— Americans in London— The "Nar- 
cissus" hall of Sir Frederick Leighton— Alma Tadema and his 
Greek studio— The private theatre of Hubert Herkomer and Sir 
Percy Shelley— William Morris at home 226 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

A HINDOO SOIREE IN LONDON. 

(From the New York Home Journal.) 

An evening at Mr. Matthius Mull's— The Oriental friends of the Shake- 
spearean scholar— Some beautiful dresses— The Indian law stu- 



XVI TABLE OF COXTEaSTS. 

PAGE 

dents— Indian music and dancing— Indian taste deteriorating un- 
der English influence 232 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

NOTES. 
(.By Edmund Russell.') 



A Defeat tean Scrap -Book. 



"The secrets of utterance, of expression itself, 
of that through which alone an intellectual or 
\ spiritual power within one can actually take effect 
voon others. 11 — Walter Pater. 

" Will power— not the will of energy that moves 
the muscles of the animal body, but the will of 
stillness that controls the animal body. 11 — Lewes. 

" Secure of possessing within yourself a standard 
of perfection toward which to aspire, you can 
henceforth contemplate undismayed all chances 
of finite and infinite. 11 — The Keys of the Creeds. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT IS DELSARTISM! 



Delsarte's work — Man's nature and man's expression — 
"Tuning the instrument " — Words, tones, and ges- 
tures — The bow of the Queen of Italy — Gladstone 
and Dr. Ri enter — The aim of the Delsartean gym- 
nastics — Quotations from Delsarte. 

Francois Delsarte devoted his life to the 
study of the laws which underlie human expres- 
sion. His work includes the observation of the 
laws of motion, the laws of gesture, the laws of 
expression; the roles played in gesture by the 



Z A DELSARTEA^ SCRAP-BOOK. 

special organs of the body, the laws of universal 
expression, and the analysis of individual devia- 
tions from these laws. 

Regarding 1 man's nature as a trinity, he be- 
lieved that one should educate the mental, moral, 
and physical at the same time and in perfect re- 
lation to each other. A trinity is inseparable; 
separation means death and the final loss of the 
power to unite and form a harmony. Modern ed- 
ucation is too much of a mental strain, a desire 
for abnormal development in special directions. 
It ignores all the laws of real growth. Educa- 
tion should fit a man for the life he is to lead; 
should preserve and develop his personality, and 
strengthen all his powers of relating himself to 
and understanding others. 

Our men either belong to the crude, brutish, 
low, physical type, or to the over-strained, ner- 
vous, short-breathed, broken-down, mental; which 
is especially common in America. A man with 
harmonious balance of power or interrelation of 
his mental, moral, and physical nature, is rare. 

The soul struggles to speak through an imper- 
fect instrument; sometimes it ceases to struggle, 
and finally has nothing to say. 

Mr. Russell, for a concise definition of Delsar- 
tism, compares it to " tuning a piano." One is 
asked to play; a string is broken; a note refuses 
to sound. Will you say, " It will not seem like 
my piano if it is not out of tune ? " No : the whole 



WHAT IS DELSARTISM? 8 

* 

instrument must be tuned to perfect relation or 
harmony, perfect co-operation of all the parts 
with the whole. 

For the expression of his triune nature man has 
three languages — the word, the tone, the gesture. 
Primarity speaking, tones express bodily condi- 
tion, physical pleasure, pain, etc. "Words are 
arbitrary mental symbols, and interpret thoughts 
and ideas — they describe and limit. Gestures re- 
late us to other beings, expressing our emotions 
and feelings. We study all the words that have 
ever been thought or said or written, in all lands 
and all ages; tones are mostly left to singers 
and gestures to accident, and there cannot be 
many " accidents " in modern clothes. " Tailor- 
made " is a good description of most society ex- 
pression. 

Ordinary labor, a blow, a simple motion, use 
but a few muscles and joints; noble feelings and 
elegant manners require the whole body to re- 
spond without tension or effort. In labor the 
brain commands special muscles to do a special 
work, but when the man does not move, but is 
moved, a wave of feeling passes over him and his 
whole body becomes eloquent. 

A quick jerk of the head says to a passing ac- 
quaintance, " I know you," but to express rever- 
ence and love the whole bod} 7 speaks in uncon- 
scious rhythm (possibly some will argue that we 
do not need to express these feelings in such ad- 



4 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK:. 

vanced civilization, but what does Mr. Ruskin 
say of its failure, "if it can't make civil men?"). 

It is the work of Delsartism to teach not how 
to come into a room and how to go out, how to 
stand and how to bow, but to train the body 
until" it is by habit unconsciously flexible, and 
feels not "self-conscious," but self-possessed for 
the expression of the moment. 

A vulgar nature makes crude, animal-like ges- 
tures; so the refined shrinks back into itself, 
stiffens its spine, and says, " gesture is vulgar" 
So it is — when in the wrong- place, but it is just as 
bad to express, or seem to express, a narrow, hard, 
constrained nature, as a coarse, free, open one — 
and either may lie; being* only the result of cir- 
cumstance, the building up of years of constraint 
or ignorance. The real self may struggle in 
vain for expression through the one body, which 
labor has narrowed down to a machine only 
speaking of labor; or the other, which respecta- 
bility has stiffened up, till it can only express 
" respectability." It is a law of expression — the 
old law of economy, "just as much as is needed 
for the occasion; no more, no less." 

Mr. Russell speaks of the graceful bow of the 
Queen of Italy, so loved by her subjects. While 
he was in Rome, she was visited by a cousin who 
sat up in the carriage with high collar, rigid 
spine, and angular arms, bowing to the people 
with a jerk of the head, in quick, comedy time — 



WHAT IS DELSARTISM? 5 

a straight line in space and moving only one 
point of .the neck. The queen bowed like a caress, 
in complex rhythmic time, and spiral line, bend- 
ing every joint of her body. The Italians all 
thought the cousin haughty and disagreeable. 

While analyzing the meaning of different bows 
one day, in the presence of a lady of the court 
who was his pupil, Mr. Russell illustrated the 
two just described. She exclaimed: "That is 
strange! Only yesterday, in the carriage, the 
princess said to the queen, ' How I envy you your 
bow; I love my people, but I cannot express it/ " 
And why not ? It was because her refined nature 
could not control her clumsy bodily mechanism, 
and make it express the good-will which dwelt 
within this haughty angular woman. She loved 
her people, but they never knew it; they had no 
good of it — the notes would not sound, the instru- 
ment could not speak in harmony. It might have 
been caused by embarrassment, or the fatigues of 
illness, or always wearing tight clothing, or by 
a mother who always said, " Don't do that, my 
daughter; it is not proper for one in your posi- 
tion," and never told her what she should do. Who 
knows? Control at the centre, freedom at the 
extremities, is a fundamental law of expression. 

Once in Paris Mrs. Russell was reminded that 
Delsarte was a descendant of Del Sarto (Italian 
for tailor). " Yes," she said, " he fits men's bodies 
to their souls." 



b A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

This new " art of expression " is largely studied 
by orators, actors, clergymen, painters, sculptors, 
and all scholars and artists who wish to get fur- 
ther knowledge of human nature. A leading 
physician in London studied two years with Mr. 
Russell, to understand motion in relation to ner- 
vous disease. 

Mr. Gladstone declared, after hearing a lecture 
by Mrs. Russell, that this art should be taught 
in every school in England, while Dr. Richter, 
the Wagnerian authority, said to her: "Every 
actor should study it, but only the greatest will 
understand its need and value." 

Delsarte's work has given a scientific basis for 
art criticism, for we find the laws of motion, color, 
sound, and form in perfect relation. The knowl- 
edge this affords is invaluable to the art-student, 
for with its aid he begins to understand nature 
instead of merely imitating her. 

The aim of the Delsartean gymnastics is to give 
symmetrical physical development, and to take 
out the angles and discords, to reduce the body 
to a natural, passive state, and from that point 
to train it to move in harmony with nature's 
laws. The movements are without nervous ten- 
sion, and all feats and exertions are discouraged. 
The practical e3^e of the teacher quickly sees if a 
joint is stiffened, or if a motion is made in ner- 
vous rhythm, and a special gymnastic is given 
until the whole body works together, and as an 



WHAT IS DELSARTISM? 7 

instrument is in tune. This usually takes long 
and patient practice, and when normal ease and 
control are attained, the pupil is only on the 
threshold of the real study of Art. 

As the syste'n deals especially with physical 
reform, it can never be written in a book, for in- 
dividual peculiarities need the personal criticism 
of a teacher, and the higher philosophy of the art 
is not given until the first steps have been mas- 
tered and the individual is under control, but im- 
portant works on art subjects might be written 
by its exponents from the knowledge gained by 
it. 

Mairy of our schools and colleges use Delsarte's 
work in some degree — Harvard, Vassar, Welles- 
ley, Tuft's, Princeton, Cornell, Oberlin, and others. 
Of his writings but a few fragments remain. He 
left his work mostly in the form of charts and 
epigrammatic sentences. From them we take 
some interesting art definitions : 

"Art is feeling passed through thought and 
fixed in form." 

"Art is the idealization of the real and the 
realization of the ideal." 

"Art is nature with the non-essentials left out." 

"Art is at once the possession and the free 
direction of the agents by virtue of which are 
revealed the life, soul, and mind. It is the appro- 
priation of the sign to the thing. It is the rela- 
tion of the beauties scattered through nature, to 



8 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

a superior type. It is not, therefore, the mere 
imitation of nature." 



II. 

The practical workings of the system — School gymnas- 
tics — Bad manners — Grace and elegance — How to 
train the body — A cure for nervousness — "Decom- 
posing " exercises — How to rest — An Oriental prince 
and the English ladies — Edwin Forrest and Delsar- 
tism — The proper age and time for study. 

It is very difficult to write on gesture and mo- 
tion; for gesture is a langauge by itself that 
cannot be adequately translated into words, and 
it would be impossible to give exact rules, as they 
would be modified with each pupil according to 
his needs. In practising the same exercise each 
pupil in a class might require a different criticism, 
according as this or that muscle or joint refused 
to obey the will.* 

The object of the work is not to teach a special 
set of gestures or an arbitrary code of manners, 
but to train the whole body until it is an instru- 
ment of facile and natural expression. Most faces 
are but a mass of scars, the tide-marks of life's 
ocean, the past worries and cares and sorrows 
indelibly stamped upon them ; most bodies are so 
stiffened by the "left-over" pieces of past exer- 

* Delsarte always insisted that the physical part of his training should 
precede the philosophical, and as the gymnastics are mainly for the 
correction of personal deviations from nature, they should never be 
printed as a series of rules to be applied to all 



WHAT IS DELSAETISM? 9 

tions or past repressions that the real nature 
finds hard work to express itself, and often gives 
up the attempt. " You must not judge by his ap- 
pearance and manners," we hear it said; "you 
will like him when you know him better." The 
real him is hiding- behind the useless and uncom- 
fortable framework, afraid to come out. 

Oar daily work gives us command of the larger 
muscles. Blows, violent exertion, nervous jerks, 
angular motions, broken-down attitudes, rude ex- 
pressions, and awkward manners, require but 
crude mechanism in their execution; but the 
rhythms which give calm and dignity, control to 
the nerves, expressive movements, good manners, 
and natural sentiment, require the whole muscu- 
lar framework to act in perfect harmony. 

The Delsartean teacher, in examining a pupil, 
usualty finds that not more than one-half of the 
muscles are ever called into action; and that this 
lack of co-operative power is made up D3 7 using 
the heavy muscles in strained violence and broken 
rhythms. 

The first exercises are all of a relaxing nature. 
The old gymnastic doubled up the fist, and with 
great tension gave a blow which jarred the whole 
nervous system. Nature does not grow by vio- 
lence, but by harmonious expansion from the sim- 
ple to the more complex. Relaxing movements 
consist in shaking the whole arm and hand until 
the joints are loosened, the muscles gently put in 



10 A DELSAKTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

action, and a ting-ling-, magnetic feeling- passes 
up and down the arm, which is then allowed to 
hang- for some time quietly by the side as if dead. 
The effects are very much the same as result from 
the massage treatment. An awakening-, as it 
were, in every part, a feeling both of repose and 
power at being- able to control the whole machin- 
ery of the arm instead of only a few muscles — a 
greater power of endurance and an absence of 
the nervous tendency to " fidget " with our hands, 
or play with a button, or our g-loves, or the fringes 
of the chair we are sitting in. " I know how to 
rest for the first time in my life," an old lady ex- 
claimed after practising these exercises. The arm 
hangs naturally relaxed at the side when not in 
use, not stuck out at the elbows like the dude, or 
tightened at the side in the manner of the con- 
ventional lady. 

Exercises of similar purpose are given for other 
parts of the body — the legs and feet — a revolving 
of the head to take the stiffness out of the neck, 
a similar revolution of the shoulders and of the 
trunk. These are practised until every joint is 
flexible, every muscle alive, and the body under 
control. Then we begin ceasing to express our- 
selves by nervous, angular twitchings of the ex- 
tremities — the rest of the body silent — or to re- 
press ourselves by sitting bolt upright with a 
society smile, a stiffened neck, and rigid hands 
clasping a pocket-book. 



WHAT IS DELSARTISM? 11 

An Oriental prince said to Mr. Russell in Lon- 
don that the English ladies reminded him of 
" magnificent antique torsos with movable heads," 
he had never seen their bodies move. 

The first exercises reduce the body to a condi- 
tion of natural freedom and flexibility; the second 
steps are to learn how to make use of this greater 
mechanical compass. The instrument has been 
tuned — we must learn now to play. The fingers 
have been developed by exercises; we will now 
practise our scales. 

Floating movements, curves, spirals, all exe- 
cuted in perfect rhythm in order to acquire calm 
control — all parts of the body moving in harmony 
obedient to the will until at last they move in 
harmony unconsciously— the accord as firmly es- 
tablished as the discord was before. These mo- 
tions are never practised simply for unmeaning* 
grace, as in dancing, the Swedish gymnastics, the 
exercises with wands, etc.; every curve, rhythm, 
and direction in space being in exact relation to 
our use of the body in natural expression. 

The movements are very difficult for some peo- 
ple, and have to be practised a long time before 
they " strike in." 

Some with quick intelligence appreciate the 
principles at once ; while, mental in their methods, 
they find it very hard to relax the nervous ten- 
sion of -their bodies; but their patient study usu- 
ally brings more return than the easily-acquired 



12 A DELSAETEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

grace of a pliable body and sluggish mind. All 
degrees of susceptibility, mental, moral, and phy- 
sical, are found in different kinds of pupils, but 
perfect balance is very rare. 

The change produced by such study is often 
very striking, when, for reason of years of repres- 
sion, embarrassment, bad dressing, and narrow 
education, one who could not express himself 
fairly, now, for the first time, feels all that rich- 
ness of nature, pent up for years, which has only 
made him miserable, striking out unconsciously 
through the new, though natural, avenues of ex- 
pression he has opened for it. 

All of the studies so far are mere gymnastics, 
daily exercises to oil the wheels of the machine 
and get it in working order. Then comes the 
study of the service of the different parts of the 
body in actual life— how in walking the foot 
should be used as an elastic arch, the ball strik- 
ing the ground first and not the heel. 

The knees should bend as little as possible — 
with some people they seem to give way with 
every step; expressing a most feeble character. 

The arms should hang flexible at the side, as 
pendulums, and swing from the shoulder, not from 
the elbow; above all, they should never be stiff- 
ened with the elbows stuck out, the expression 
being that of vulgar self-assertion. 

The chest should be kept raised and be the 
leading point in the poise of the body — the head 



WHAT IS DELSARTISM? 13 

advanced gives a mental preoccupied look, ner- 
vous and searching- if the eyes are open, unrelated 
to the world if the eyes are drooped; with the 
stomach leading, the manner is vulgar and phy- 
sical. 

In the best Greek and Egyptian statues the 
chest is always on a line with the front part of 
the foot. 

The tight high collar of the period is, of course, 
very injurious to natural expression, which de- 
mands, with control at the centre, perfect free- 
dom at the extremities. The collar should never 
come higher than the point where the neck and 
body join. Of course, too, it goes without saying 
that the wearing of corsets is strongly disap- 
proved b} 7 all Delsarteans, as control of the breath 
underlies both gesture and voice. A sunken chest 
gives an appearance of contemptible weakness, 
and our centre of control must be firm or the 
flexibility of the body will seem unpleasantly 
"sloppy" and affected. In this point many Del- 
sartean students fail; accomplishing the bodily 
rhythms, but not sufficiently understanding the 
necessity of "control at the centre." 

The bow must begin at the head and not the 
feet; must not be a jerk of one joint at the neck, 
or a bend of the hip, but should obey the law of 
" succession " and follow the path of all true ex- 
pression, beginning with the eye and passing like 
a wave over the body, using every joint in its 



14 A DELSAETEAE" sceap-book. 

turn ; any slip, break, or change of time affecting 
the truth of the expression. The articulation 
should make distinct use of the teeth, tongue, 
and lips, the throat being relaxed and the voice, 
borne up by the controlled breath, be vibrant and 
resonant through all the cavities of the mouth 
and nose. 

Good food, fresh air, plenty of sleep, frequent 
bathing and rubbing, the steam-room of the Rus- 
sian bath, massage, all have great effect in keep- 
ing the body natural and free in its expression; 
and by these, combined with the careful physical 
exercise of the Delsarteans, much of the freshness 
of youth can be preserved or regained. Contin- 
ual labor in any one direction, lack of exercise, 
embarrassment, tight clothes, and evil passions, 
all dwarf and deform, tightening their grasp until 
we live in the clutches of the past and are not 
free for the needs of the present. 

Modern nations pay little attention to the cul- 
ture of the body; the ancient Greeks had both 
their standards of beauty and their schools for 
attaining it. Speaking of their beauty compared 
with our physical degeneration, a contemporary 
writer says : " It was a beauty based on bodily 
health, on the grace and harmony and perfect 
proportion of every organic part. It was not 
confined to the face. It included every limb and 
lineament, every aspect of form and feature. It 
was a natural, wholesome, abiding beauty. . . . 



WHAT IS DELSARTISM? 15 

It was a beauty that did not fade with the first 
freshness of youth." 

The training- of the prize-ring and college gym- 
nasium aims solely at the production of force and 
muscle; the Delsartean recognizes the distinction 
between the motions of force and those of expres- 
sion and trains for every exigency of life. Ac- 
companying this general study and practice, there 
is specialized work, according to the needs of the 
student. 

Edwin Forrest said shortly before his death : 
"The Delsarte philosophy has thrown floods of 
light upon nry mind. In fifteen minutes it has 
given me a deeper insight into the philosophy of 
my own art than I had, myself, learned in fifty 
years of study." 

If the student be a sculptor, he studies the poses 
of the body in all their meanings; if a painter, 
the same, with the analysis of the meanings and 
relations of colors and their combinations, the 
expression of lines, the relation of the line to the 
angle, the circle to the spiral, etc. 

Mr. Russell, when asked the proper age for 
study, replied : " Of course the best time for such 
training is in youth; all of our public-school 
teachers should fully understand Delsarte's work. 

"Most children are born well formed, with 
beautiful voices and natural grace of expression. 
This, however, gets quickly knocked out of them 
at school in the strained mentality of our present 



16 A DELSAKTEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

systems and the purely artificial exercises that 
form part of the school routine. 

" In every school there should be a little good 
gymnastic practice to preserve the natural 
rhythms, and every teacher should know enough 
to correct a bad poise, a thumping walk, a hard 
tone, or clavicular breathing, without ever letting 
the students know that they were learning a 
' system ' — which is an unpleasant word. He must 
learn the system, and train them so well that they 
would never need it. 

"Delsarte discovered, he did not invent, and 
true Delsarteans claim to have no patent on na- 
ture, but to have been assisted in understanding 
nature's laws by Delsarte's formulations. There 
is nothing in our modern education to preserve 
or develop personal^. A teacher of expression 
has, of course, a very responsible position, and 
must know thoroughly his work." 

In reply to " How long is it necessary to study ? " 
Mr. Russell said: "A great many ideas can be 
gained as how to stand, breathe, walk, move, in 
a few lessons; but of course it takes much patient 
practice and study- to really conquer personal de- 
fects. Many study several years, and about two 
hours a day is the rule for practice — I give more 
time than that to my own study even now. A 
good pianist would require as much to keep his 
hand in perfect condition, and this work is with . 
the same object." In regard to his own practice, 



WHAT IS DELSAKTISM? 17 

Mr. Eussell said : "A lecture never exhausts me. 
I always feel invigorated, alive, and ready for 
another. I never plan my talks; they are entirely 
impromptu, and I no more think of what I am to 
say beforehand than I would think of what my 
conversation at the dinner-table would be. I 
practise some relaxing* exercises a few minutes 
before going on the platform, so I may be sure 
that there are no nervous contractions anywhere 
in my body resulting from the 'stage-fright' 
that I always feel for hours before. I take some 
deep breaths for control, and then try as much as 
possible to forget myself in what I have to say, 
and am, of course, very much affected by the 
magnetism of the audience. 

"Many people ask if the work would not make 
one self-conscious. That would be only the result 
if superficially studied, but the increased power 
in understanding and expressing one's self gives 
e self-possession ' rather than ' self-consciousness/ 
It always results in making a personality more 
interesting by giving it a wider range of expres- 
sion than the mere rigidity of social etiquette. 

" The poor body, cramped up, stiffened, unbend- 
ing, uninteresting, or else wasting its nervous 
force in over-restlessness, must practise slow, reg- 
ulated, relaxing rhythms until the sense of har- 
mony is established, so that when a movement is 
made every part of the body responds, and the 
harmonious obedience by long practice becomes 



18 DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

as much second-nature as the nervous jerks 
were. 

" Of course, when a person thinks of a special 
way to niove or walk he becomes self-conscious, 
attempting- to affect an accomplishment his body 
cannot execute; but if the body be well trained, 
whatever it does seems natural and unconscious. 
Animals usually move in perfect grace, and are 
most particular in practising" exercises to keep 
themselves in good condition. By labor and ig- 
norance man has been broken down to the level 
of a jaded old cart-horse, with a most cultivated 
intellect. His education fails to develop all his 
powers. The ivord, the tone, the gesture are 
designed to be his means of expression, his weap- 
ons in the fight, but he is only skilled in the use 
of words. 

"Occasionally we say of an orator that he 
seems to have sprung* full-fledged from the fore- 
head of Jove, but do we ever say it of a young 1 
man ? ISTo : it is usually of some giant of fifty or 
sixty. Inquire into his life. Question his family 
about his habits of study, his patience, his 
unceasing practice of the minor points of his 
technique. Then we find that this great man un- 
derstood, studied, and mastered his weak points, 
and the boys who lie in bed and dream of being 
' gocl-gifted ' may learn that great warriors have 
to forge their own chain armor." 

The subject is a very wide one, and we have not 



WHAT IS DELSARTISM? 19 

touched upon the science of art criticism that has 
been founded on it, but we must close this article 
by giving another of those peculiarly suggestive 
definitions of art in which it pleased Delsarte to 
concentrate so much of his wisdom, and which 
are almost the only authentic fragments of his 
written thought which he left behind : 

" Art should interest by the true. 
Art should move by the beautiful. 
Art should persuade by the good. 1 ' 

Art should — 
" Interest by the true to illumine the intelligence. 
Move by the beautiful to regenerate the life. 
Persuade by the good to perfect the heart." 

W. 



The Effect of Motion on Personality.— Rigid outward movements 
enlarge the bulk and strengthen sensuality. Rigid inward movements 
cramp the organism and break the unity and liberty of its circulation, 
leading to every variety of disease. But flowing musical movements 
justly blent of the two movements, in which rhythm is observed, and the 
extensor muscles are used in preponderance over the contractile so as to 
neutralize the modern instinctive tendency to use the contractile more 
than the extensor . . . will economize the expenditure of force, soothe 
sensibilities, and secure a balanced and harmonious development of the 
whole man in equal strength and grace.— W. B. Alger. 

A Mistake to Exercise for Strength Alone.— When great muscular 
strength or agility follows in the wake of ph}-sical exercise, these should 
be regarded as incidental and entirely subordinate to the health of body 
.which the exercise has secured. To exercise for strength alone and to 
estimate it as the chief aim is an inexcusable blunder. There is no 
necessary physiological, causal relation between strength and health. 
Indeed, it is a notorious fact that professional athletes are often defective 
in some bodily organ, and they generally die early in life from either 
heart or lung trouble. Developing certain sets of muscles to the exclu- 
sion of others makes the muscular system unsymmetrical, and interferes 
with the equable distribution of the general blood-supply. Inordinate 
development of muscular "power calls for unnatural activity from the 
central vital organs, and thus it frequently occurs that under the strain 
of some special effort the heart or lungs fail, and death results. —Dr. Q. 
D.Stahley. 



20 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 



"Life without industry is guilt, and industry 
without art is brutality.' 11 — Buskin. 



CHAPTER II. 

ART EDUCATION. 

(From " Education in the Industrial and Fine Arts," published by U. S. 
Government.) 

Can good taste be acquired ? — The laws of beauty — The 
science of art-criticism — Prof. Walter Smith and 
industrial drawing — To understand the "reasons 
why" in art — Need of Delsartean teachings in our 
public schools. 

The reasons why one object is agreeable and 
another repulsive must be innate in man's nature. 
Yet, thougii all the discoveries of science are 
based upon the assumed uniformity of nature, 
and all the operations of mental action proceed 
upon the recognition of the invariable sequence 
of cause and effect, mankind have allowed them- 
selves, on this one subject, to ignore the teachings 
of experience, and in obedience to two or three 
musty proverbs, such, for instance, as "De gusti- 
bus non est disputandum" to be persuaded that 
there are no laws of beauty, and that, therefore, 
there can be no standard of correct taste set up; 
that throughout the whole realm of art the only 
guide is fashion, or individual caprice. . ..... : 



ART EDUCATION. 21 

The conviction that there could* be no such 
absurd contradiction in nature has led Mr. Ruskin, 
and other thoughtful investigators,, to the en- 
deavor to ascertain these underlying truths of 
art. 

A great genius in Paris, nearly a century ago, 
set himself to serious study in search of the laws 
which underlie human expression. Years of pa- 
tient research were rewarded by important dis- 
coveries. The story of his life and his pursuit of 
truth is as interesting as is always that of the 
great discoverers in any of the realms of nature. 

These discoveries were naturally first availed 
of in the dramatic art, and, perhaps, as naturally 
have therefore been thought to be thus limited in 
their appreciation. Soon, however, the painters 
of historical or dramatic incidents found their 
uses. It is at last now beginning to be recognized 
that, since all art is but expression, the laws 
that underlie expression must also underlie all 
art. 

Here, then, there begins to be a practical out- 
come. If art is based on immutable laws like 
mathematics, the principles of correct taste can 
be demonstrated and therefore can be taught, and 
this the followers of Delsarte claim to do. It can 
be shown why one wall-paper is displeasing and 
another pleasing, just as an addition of figures 
can be shown to be correct or incorrect. The re- 
lations between forms and colors, or between 



22 A DELSAETEA]S T SCEAP-BOOK. 

various articles, can be so clearly explained that 
the principles in accordance with which they must 
be combined in order to produce certain definite 
effects can be taught. The laws of harmony, 
which surely underlie all art, can be ascertained. 
Their importance and their uniform action can be 
shown. In accordance with these laws the'color- 
ing and furnishing* of a dwelling, or a room, can 
be intelligently designed to produce certain ef- 
fects, as confidently as an architect now draws 
his plans. The laws applicable to dress, to all 
decoration, the means of making the person and 
home attractive, can be taught, just as the cor- 
rect use of language is now taught. What 
Walter Smith so well began in Boston can now, 
it is claimed, be supplemented and developed by 
the followers of Delsarte, the great discoverer of 
whom we have just spoken. 

In New York, the artists, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund 
Kussell, are busily promulgating the principles of 
Delsarte in a series of lectures largely illustrated 
by the beautiful fabrics and artistic handiwork 
of "The Associated Artists," and by examples of 
wall-papers, ceramics, and other products of the 
industrial" arts, showing, in each instance, why 
this is pleasing and that displeasing, how one 
combination is in harmony while another pro- 
duces violent discord. So far as possible these 
illustrations are by means of American works, 
the rapid increase of art qualities in which is de- 



ART EDUCATION. 23 

clared by these experts to be most notable. In 
attending these lectures a new sense of the " com- 
mon bond which unites the arts," long since re- 
marked by Cicero, is impressed on the hearer. 

The simplicity and beauty of the discoveries 
made by Delsarte, and the facility of the applica- 
tion of these principles to all the varied, seemingly 
contradictory, phases of art, make their exposi- 
tion by one who embodies and illustrates the prin- 
ciples set forth most attractive. 

That these principles should be taught in all 
normal schools, should be familiar to all public- 
school teachers, and should be an indispensable 
part of all education, will surely need no argu- 
ment to those who believe in the introduction of 
elementary industrial art drawing in all public 
schools. 

That an element of education which will di- 
rectly teach the child how to make a house at- 
tractive is an important element, needs no argu- 
ment. 

The laws that underlie all language, whether 
the language of speech or of gesture, are surely 
of importance in any schemes of literary educa- 
tion, while their importance in the language of 
art is assumed. 

Those who recall the eloquence, enthusiasm, 
and mastery of his subject shown by Walter 
Smith, when urging before an audience the claims 
upon educators of elementary instruction in in- 



24 A DELSARTEA^ SCEAP-BOOK. 

dustrial art drawing, will gladty recognize simi- 
lar qualities, while listening to the musical periods 
and watching the graceful gestures of the disciple 
of Delsarte. These two enthusiasts have this in 
common, that they take captive their audience 
and compel conviction. 

In this application to the industrial and deco- 
rative, as well as to the fine arts, of the principles 
discovered by Delsarte, a positive addition is 
made to educational facilities for art development. 
It is easy to see that by a general dissemination 
of the practical knowledge of these laws of re- 
lated harmonies, with, at the same time, the 
teaching of industrial art drawing in all public 
schools, a wonderful impetus would be given to 
the art knowledge, and consequently to the artis- 
tic productions of the community. By making 
use of this new educational influence, such a wide- 
spread diffusion of correct art knowledge can be 
secured as has been heretofore unattainable. To 
develop in the community at large a knowledge 
of the principles on which a correct taste in art 
matters is based, would be to lay broad and deep 
the foundations of artistic development. 

This knowledge is applicable to every stage of 
art development and is as readily adapted to 
practical uses as it is satisfactory in theory. The 
claim that the laws of related harmonies can be 
definitely taught and readily comprehended, and 
that the reason why one thing is artistically beau- 



ART EDUCATION. 25 

tiful and another is lacking in all these qualities 
can be made clear to the mind of a child, is, in 
effect, to remove art and artistic manufacturers 
from the realm of empiricism to that of certainty. 
If the public can be thus trained to become intel- 
ligent art critics; the rapid improvement of Amer- 
ican art manufactures is secured. 

Col. J. Edwards Clark. 
(Bureau of Education, "Washington.) 



Delsarte and Agassiz.— Delsarte taught that every muscle, joint, 
organ, and atom of the body has a mission to perform as an instrument 
of expression for the soul. He studied anatomy five years that he might 
know the be dy. This gave him one side of the subject. For the other 
side he went to the street, went everywhere he could find men, studied 
them as they were under the sway of special thought and emotions; thus 
he saw the anatomy ia action. 

Applying the same method that had given him the laws of structure, 
he derived the laws of movement. 

Thus he founded a new science — that of "expressive man." 

There are interesting points of likeness between Delsarte and Agassiz. 
Their method of viewing the universe, method of study, and method of 
teaching were the same. The one was an artist using the rigid method 
of the naturalist ; the other was a naturalist with the fine feelings of an 
artist. The method in each case was the same— they differed only in the 
subject to which they were applied.— Prof. H. H. Straight, Oswego Nor- 
mal School, N. V. 

Body and Mind. — In these days, when there is a great rage for educa- 
tion, a certain top-heaviness has been produced among children, and the 
good homely help-mate of the mind, the body, is decidedly neglected. 
It is looked upon as is the dull but sensible wife of some clever man, 
whose duty is to get through all the home drudgery. She must be in- 
vited out with him, but is ignored in society, and is only tolerated on 
account of her brilliant husband. Xow, I consider the body to be just as 
important as the mind, and that it ought to be treated with just as much 
respect, especially in these days of intense competition, when, given an 
equality of brains and education, it is the strong body that tells in the 
long run and gives staying power. That alone can help the mind to bear 
the strain, and anything that can assist our children to bear this daily- 
increasing strain is surely not beneath our notice. 

It is really surprising to see the amount of trouble and pains bestowed 
on the proper housing and feeding of horses and dogs, or other domestic 



26 A DELSAETEAX SCEAP-BOOK. 



animals, while at the same time comparatively little attention is paid to 
these matters with regard to the rearing of children. Model stables and 
model kennels abound, while the model nursery is almost wholly un- 
known. Warming, ventilation, and aspect are all subjects which are 
thoroughly considered in the stable, while as regards the nursery they 
are generally left for chance to decide— though the health of a child is 
surely more important than that of a horse or a dog.— Jessie Oriana 
Woller, in Nineteenth Century. 

Born Delsarteans.— Nature is all right enough if left to herself. 
What is at fault, on the contrary, is the tmnatural life we lead, crowded 
together in cities, one half the people doing a double share of the work 
of the world, and the other half doing nothing at all. Added to this, 
there is our mode of dress, which robs the greater part of our muscles of 
their use and beauty. We are all natural-born Delsarteans, if I may be 
excused the term ; but from the moment our education begins— say at 
six years of age— nature is slowly but surely stifled. The mental is 
assiduously cultivated to the utter detriment of the physical and moral, 
and this in the face of the ordinary gymnastics, which frequently develop 
one special set of muscles at the expense of the entire nervous system. 
Depend upon it, there is a time coming when the folly of this will be 
recognized and amended.— Edmund Russell. 

Gladstone and Tennyson. — The Hon. W. E. Gladstone and Tennyson, 
the poet, were both at a public dinner lately. Mr. Gladstone ate with 
relish, laughed, chatted and told a good share of anecdotes, and played 
the boy by eating the sugar out of the bottom of his cup. Tennyson, on 
the other hand, moped through the time, being bored with nearly every- 
thing that occurred. Gladstone is the older man of the two, and has 
done more mental and physical work than the poet has. 

What is the difference in their lives ? Tennyson has been and is a 
tobacco smoker, and now sits, almost by the hour, with a number of new 
clay pipes beside him, from each of which he smokes once, then breaks 
it and throws it iuto his waste-basket. This is delightful and soothing to 
his nerves, no doubt, but bleeds away his vitality and leaves him a de- 
crepit old man who can scarcely endure his own existence, and is a 
trouble to all around him. Carlyle was a similar victim, and Spurgeon 
suffers from the same cause. Mr. Gladstone has made a study of health 
and practises what he believes. He expends his strength on muscular 
work, which keeps his nervous system sound and vigorous. Instead of 
being gouty, growling, and disagreeable at his age, he is sound in mind, 
hale and vigorous, creating joy wherever he goes — excepting among 
British Tories.— A. Cuthbertson. 



HEALTH, NATURAL EXPRESSION, ETC. 27 



"Let not any one say that he cannot govern 
his passions nor hinder them from breaking out 
and carrying him to action ; for what he can do 
before a prince or a great man he can do alone, or 
in the presence of God, if he will." — Locke. 

"We have had something too much of the gos- 
pel of work ; it is time to preach the gospel of 
relaxation. "—Herbert Spencer. 



CHAPTER III. 

HEALTH, NATURAL EXPRESSION, GRACE. 



Delsartean development— " Know thyself" — The differ- 
ent kinds of exercises — Grace— Rest — Sleep — Labor 
— Corpulency — " The Pace That Kills " — Vital econ- 
omy—Broken-down old age. 

Delsartean development introduces a person 
to himself. As the avenues of expression are 
freed from restriction and our bodies become re- 
sponsive instruments, latent talents and possibil- 
ities are often awakened. Most people are capa- 
ble of more than they think they are. Lack of 
physical self-knowledge handicaps many people; 
they think their bodies are angular, clumsy, out 
of proportion, even deformed, when in truth the 
bodies are symmetrical, but are unnaturally, in- 
harmoniously used. 

The Delsarte philosophy teaches how to train 



28 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

the nerves, how to rest, and how to move and act 
with economy of force. 

The Delsarte gymnastics develop habitual 
grace. They break up bad physical habits and 
establish natural ones. Awkwardness is a waste 
of force. 

The Delsarte relaxing* exercises remove waste- 
ful nerve-tension and conserve vital energy. They 
appeal especially to nervous, overworked people. 

The Delsarte sleep exercises have enabled many 
to overcome insomnia. 

The Delsarte abdominal exercises have over- 
come and can prevent that abnormal physical 
condition — corpulency. 

The Delsarte laws of expression furnish a key 
to character study. These laws underlie all art. 

The Delsarte work develops self-possession and 
overcomes self -consciousness. 

The Delsarte rhythmical exercises enable a per- 
son not only to appear and feel better, but by 
their reflex action to be better. 

" By seeming worthy we grow to what we seem." 

Physical habits have a reflex action upon the 
inner nature. 

" The improved man will differ from the man of 
to-day chiefly in the economy of nervous power," 
says Judge Tourgee. Many teach domestic econ- 
omy, political econonry; Delsarte teaches vital 
economy. Conservation of energy is the funda- 



HEALTH, 1S T ATUEAL EXPKESSION, ETC. 29 

mental principle of the Delsarte development. 
By the freeing 1 or relaxing" exercises all nerve-ten- 
sion is removed from the muscles when they are 
not in use. Nerve-force thus drawn from the 
extremities and exterior muscles is conserved 
and reserved in the great nerve-centres, giving" 
" strength at the centre, freedom at the extrem- 
ities." 

This nerve-training benefits especially the army 
of nerve-bound, overworked people — those who 
waste vital force by the tension kept upon the 
muscles even when the body is in the attitude of 
repose. We should unstring' the bow when it is 
not in use. 

Bad physical habits — bad, because wasteful 
and irritating- in effect, unrefined in expression — 
can be broken up by the Delsarte scientific drill. 
In place thereof healthful, upbuilding- physical 
habits can be developed by the practice of the 
rhythmical, formative exercises. 

By disciplining the physical as well as the 
mental nature, we can escape the rigidity and 
heaviness of old age; we can retain youthful elas- 
tic^ and erectness of carriage. 

The Delsarte philosophy, in its entirety, is a 
tree whose roots feed at the heart of nature: 
whose trunk is science; upon whose branches un- 
fold all the departments of art. Through a 
knowledge of its principles, painting, acting, 
sculpture, music, poetry, oratory, man, and na- 



30 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

ture, all speak a new language to the student. 
He becomes, in very truth, an artist. 

II. 

Expression development — Life gives force, education 
should give expression — Nerve-rest — Rhythm the 
law of health, growth, and beauty — The Delsartean 
gymnastics. 

The question is frequently asked, " Wherein do 
the Delsarte gymnastics differ from other sys- 
tems of physical exercise ? " They differ materi- 
ally from all other systems in their ultimate ob- 
jects, in the means of attaining them. Other sys- 
tems seek to develop muscle, to produce strong 
athletic bodies. The French master, by his sys- 
tem of symmetrical development, sought to ob- 
tain, not muscle, but expression. 

Delsarte observed that man's movements when 
he was governed by his higher impulses were not 
of the straight, thrusting, violent order, nor of 
the angular, jerky nature, but that they were in 
the order of curves and spirals. Conclusion : if 
man in his more exalted moments naturally ex- 
presses himself by easy, controlled movements, 
can he not, by cultivating such motions until 
they become habitual — second nature — produce 
those better inner states by means of the reflex 
action of the motions ? 

This, then, is the philosophy underlying all of 
the rhythmical, conservative movements of the 



HEALTH, NATUKAL EXPKESSION, ETC. 31 

Delsarte system; the exercises embodying this 
principle bring* into play every muscle of the 
body without doing violence to any part; a sooth- 
ing, quieting influence is produced upon the nerves, 
which in turn carry this influence to the brain, 
and thus the whole body is at once invigorated 
and rested. 

Delsarte found that before bodies could be 
moulded to the desired expression of high thought 
and feeling, the human material must be made 
plastic, susceptible; that an undoing process must 
in nearly all cases precede an upbuilding process. 
By mental intensity and muscular restraint man 
is unconsciously restricted in all his movements; 
he holds on to himself either by a stiffness in the 
joints or by a tension in the muscles. This self- 
imposed restriction defeats nature; she cannot 
harmoniously express herself through such a high- 
strung instrument; worse than this, it is a great 
and unnecessary expenditure of vital force, a con- 
stant drain upon life's reserve capital. 

In order to get rid of this injurious tension, 
the " freeing," " devitalizing," or " decomposing " 
exercises are given. These exercises were origi- 
nal with Delsarte. Many persons use them in 
physical training who do not give credit where it 
is due, but all such movements are Delsartean in 
philosophy and origin. They consist in a series 
of gymnastics which free every muscle and artic- 
ulation of the body. 



32 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

By the freeing* exercises we seek to undo bad, 
wasteful physical habits ; then, by the rythmical, 
soothing* movements of the formative gymnas- 
tics, to develop in their stead conservative, health- 
ful, and graceful physical habits; lastly by these 
better habits to create a self-poised, normal inner 
state. 

Let no one infer that the Delsarte gymnastics 
are antagonistic to other forms of rational phy- 
sical exercise; the contrary is true. 

In conclusion, the Delsarte exercises, remedially 
considered, appeal particularly to the many nerve- 
bound, overwrought people of this too intense 
age, and to that large class of semi-invalids. As 
applied to health they tend to husband the " struc- 
tural force or vitality," while other systems of 
exercises in general tend to develop the "func- 
tional force or working strength." 

Mrs. Coleman E. Bishop. 



The Study of Life.— How to live ?— that is the essential question for 
us. Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but in the widest 
sense. The general problem which comprehends every special problem 
is— the right ruling of conduct in all directions under all circumstances. 
In what way to treat the body ; in what way to treat the mind ; in what 
way to bring up a family ; in what way to behave as a citizen ; in what 
way to utilize all those sources of happiness which nature supplies— how 
to use all our faculties to the greatest advantage for ourselves and 
others— how to live completely. And this being the great thing needful 
for us to learn, is, by consequence, the great thing which education has 
to teach . To prepare us for complete living is the function which educa- 
tion has to discharge ; and the only rational mode of judging of any 
educational course is, to judge in what degree it discharges such func- 
tion. — Herbert Spencer. 

Wasted Nerve-Force.— As the gaining of spiritual strength comes 



HEALTH, NATURAL EXPRESSION, ETC. 33 

through the full realization that from no selfish effort can we progress 
in regeneration, that the first necessity for spiritual growth is the drop- 
ping of self and selfish desires, so in this physical work the first object is 
an absolute letting go of all unnecessary tension— all tension that has been 
impressed upon the muscles through an excess of effort in our daily 
lives, although many times it is purely unconscious. How many trust- 
ing, patient souls do we see with the muscles of the forehead strained so 
that their eyebrows never fall to a normal height ? They believe them- 
selves to be trustful, perhaps even at rest. Help them to become con- 
scious of these strained muscles, to become sensitive to the unnecessary 
physical tension, and, as they learn to drop it, they are invariably led to 
consider the selfish spiritual tension which is the cause, and new light is 
perceived and new rest found. The divine in us meets external truths, 
and leads them to an internal light from which our lives are renewed. 
So the external evidences of the misapplication and misuse of our own 
wonderful machine, as we see them clearly and overcome them, lead us 
into new acknowledgments of the spiritual causes and new sense of the 
absoluteness of the divine power. First, all force must be dropped, the 
tension must be taken from our bodies entirely, which brings us as 
nearly to the state of a new-born baby as is possible. This cannot be 
done all at once ; it cannot be done with every part of the body at once. 
It must be taken piece by piece. First, there are motions to free the 
muscles connected with the head ; and it is surprising to find how much 
force we use to hold our own heads on, proved by our inability to let 
them go. Nature will hold them on much better than we can, and we 
only hinder her by endeavoring to assist. The personal endeavor hitherto 
has been unconscious. As soon as we become conscious of it, how can we 
cease trying until we have dropped our personal officiousness to that 
extent 1— Annie Payson Call. 

Development.— The faculties owe their development as much to the 
operation of the instruments of expression as to the impressions of the 
outward senses.— Sir Charles Bell. 



34 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK 



"The wise man rules his stars, the fool obeys 
them. 1 ' 

" The enemy of art is the enemy of nature. Art 
is nothing but the highest sagacity and exertion of 
human nature ; and what nature will he honor 
who honors not the human? "—Lavater. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PERSONALITY. 

The art of expression — Personal power — The meaning of 
Delsarte's teachings — His methods of studying na- 
ture — His discoveries in harmony with other scien- 
tific discoveries— Prof. Tomlin's inquiry — Does the 
study of expression make one self-conscious ? — Self- 
consciousness or self-possession. 

The man who is master of himself is king" of 
men. He need not assert himself, for his pres- 
ence alone is power. Strength begets repose in 
himself and confidence in others. He is called 
original, great, "because his spirit controls mat- 
ter, because his body obeys his mind. Among 
the educational problems of the present day, none 
is more vital than this of preserving and devel- 
oping personality. 

The tendency of modern education is to mass, 
to organize, to move men in numbers as if they 
were automata. To carry the burden of civiliza- 
tion requires that man be put into possession of 
all his powers as instruments of his will, so that 



PERSONALITY. 35 

he can control his body and his surroundings. 
The present civilized man knows more than he 
can do, feels more than he can express, is ham- 
pered in the development of his individuality by 
the requirements of convention, the subtle influ- 
ences of his social environment, the still more 
subtle influences of heredity. Whatever shall 
give him brain-power to solve the problems of 
life and nerve-power to transmit the mandates 
of the brain to educated muscles which shall ex- 
ecute them is of primary importance in a scheme 
of education. 

Until the coming- of Delsarte, empiricism was 
the only guide to the preservation and education 
of personality. But his Science of Expressive 
Man, the result of years of study of man's phy- 
siology and psychology ^ has given man absolute 
power to make of himself something more than 
the creature of circumstances; a being whose 
body is the exponent of his soul, responsive to 
every command of the spirit, and reflecting in its 
perfect rhythm the harmony of his being. 

u Nor soul helps body more than body soul." 

The science of expression relates to man as an 
organism, to man as a spirit. It builds upon the 
sure foundation of scientific discovery tne perfect 
superstructure of art. It transmutes every law 
of condition and structure into perfect motion 
and harmony of relations. 



36 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

The walk reveals to every looker-on something" 
of the character of the person walking-, but to un- 
derstand the act of walking is the result of study 
of the science of motion. To understand the 
spiritual significance of a walk is the result of a 
knowledge of the laws of expression. The art of 
expression applies science to ascertain the cause 
of defective motion, after a comparison with the 
ideal walk has shown when the defective motion 
exists. The cause ascertained, it suggests the 
gymnastic which, will remove the cause and re- 
sult in giving harmony of succession and rhythm; 
in other words, the perfect walk. The same might 
be said of bowing", of rising, of sitting", of the 
movements of arms and hands, the poise of the 
body, the inclinations of the head. The art of 
expression always compares the action with the 
ideal, ascertains deviations, their causes, suggests 
the gymnastic which will correct the deviations, 
and relates the muscular and nerve action to the 
vital and spiritual meanings which most men 
only remotely apprehend, but w T hich are the most 
potent factors in their development. This it does 
by absolute law discovered by Delsarte. Hen- 
rietta Russell, pupil of the younger Delsarte, 
is a master of expression. Gifted with a per- 
sonal magnetism which compels the confidence 
of every hearer, she realizes in herself the grace 
of being and motion which makes a lesson on 
walking or the dramatic expression of a conso- 



PERSONALITY. 37 

nant seem like a living" poem. Her epigrammatic 
statements of vital principles are like fine crys- 
tallizations of truth, and each lesson has a value 
extending far beyond the immediate subject into 
the manifold relations of life. 

The following pertinent anecdote forms the best 
introduction to a discussion of the principles un- 
derlying" a system of exercises designed to develop 
the human being. After Mrs. Russell's first lec- 
ture in Chicago, Mr. Tomlins requested a private 
conference on the subject of the Delsarte system. 
His first question at this interview was as follows : 
u How long must your student continue the prac- 
tice of these exercises before the conscious me- 
chanical motion can become unconscious — auto- 
matic ? " Only a man of genius could have asked 
a question which so touched the vital point — the 
test of all methods of teaching art — its power to 
make character — to create genius. For genius is 
only personality developed according to its own 
laws, or educated by circumstances in the direc- 
tion of native ability. 

To answer Mr. Tomlins' question involves a 
discussion of the laws of human organization — 
mental, moral, physical. It involves the consid- 
eration of the kinds of movements necessary to 
expression, and the gymnastics w T hich shall de- 
velop such movements. To get automatic action 
of a high enough sort to make the body respon- 
sive to high impulses and emotions, requires that 



38 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

these gymnastics be carried far enough for the 
student to become master of them. Each motion 
which is made in perfect system — perfect obedi- 
ence to the laws of bodily growth and action, is 
made in harmony with many laws — complex and 
involved: hence its mastery gives power over 
many motions not at first apparently related to 
it. An illustration from the science of music is 
readily understood. Perfect mastery of the scales 
and some fundamental laws of harmony give 
the keys to an infinite number of combinations. 
This is true of every art. The essentials for the 
attainment of automatic action are these: the 
motions given must be few in number; they must 
be made in obedience to the laws of muscular 
and nervous action; and they must be in ac- 
cordance with the great fundamental laws of ex- 
pression. 

Said Delsarte : "All emotion must be expressed 
by the movement of organs in obedience to the 
law of succession ; that is, the expression must 
begin at the eye, then spread over the face, to the 
shoulders, over the whole body like a wave, using 
each articulation of the body as it moves down- 
ward." 

When a student has mastered one gymnastic, 
he has gained great power over others of which 
he is perfectly ignorant. Each gymnastic pre- 
pares for some deed or impulse, so that when the 
emotion rises, the body expresses it naturally and 



PERSONALITY, 89 

unconsciously. " The gymnastics elaborated by 
Delsarte give not only grace to the general 
movements of the student, but each gymnastic 
is the nucleus of a series of gestures, and while 
the gym nasties are limited in number, the ges- 
tures derived from them are infinite. The stu- 
dent, from practice of perfect motions and ex- 
pressive gestures, learns to express himself in a 
beautiful language that may be read aright by a 
child as well as a philosopher." 

" Moreover, his knowledge of the meaning of 
motion gives him power to read the character of 
those with whom he comes in contact, so that he 
may be just in his judgment of people and able 
to protect himself in his relation with them." 

No greater error can be made than to suppose 
that artificiality and self-consciousness are the 
result of this training. By giving to the human 
being power to understand himself and to express 
himself, he is placed at once where he need only 
be himself in order to express himself with sin- 
cerity and dignity. 

What was the object of the old system of gym- 
nastics ? To give strength of muscle and precis- 
ion of movement. By imitation or direction the 
student was taught a series of movements in 
straight lines — conventional, unrelated to any re- 
quirement of actual life. To extend the arm 
'straight out from the shoulder with fist doubled 
up, and movement made with great force and 



40 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

precision, gave an excellent preparation for knock- 
ing* a man down, but it could hardly be considered 
effective in any other situation. More than this, 
it seems to be proven that such muscular drill 
was generally in opposition to laws of growth as 
stated by recent physiologists. Delsarte's state- 
ments of principles have been confirmed by inves- 
tigators of science, so that his great generaliza- 
tions stand upon the same basis of natural law. 
Emma D. Straight. 



Universal Man.— What is microscopic in one is largely developed in 
another ; what is rudimentary in one man is an active organ in another; 
but all things are in all men, and one soul is the model of all.— Olive 
Schreiner. 

"It is a fundamental law of our nature that the mind shall have its 
powers developed through the influence of the body ; that the organs of 
the body shall be the links in the chain of relation between it and the 
material world, through which the immaterial principle within shall be 
affected. ,, — Sir Charles Bell. 

The Study of Art.— True study of any branch of knowledge con- 
sists in giving the matter of that branch such repetitions of attentive 
consideration that it at length becomes an integral part of the domain of 
the consciousness, and can at any time, under any correlated stimulus, 
be made use of by automatic mental action. 

True study of art consists, primarily, in the attentive repetitions of 
the action of the physiological organs involved in the productions of 
that art until that art becomes automatic, and is as well and so naturally 
performed as any original reflex physiological functions.—" Lucifer.' 1 '' 



DELSARTISM IN ENGLAND. 41 



" The dominant idea of Delsarte's method is that 
not only is every organ capable of expressing 
what is passing through the mind or heart, but 
that when there is complete unison of soul and 
body, all the members harmoniously and in 
certain succession transcribe outwardly the in- 
ward feelings. "—London Illustrated News. 



CHAPTER V. 

DELSARTISM IN ENGLAND. 

Owen Meredith — Sir Frederick Leighton — The elder 
Garcia — The secret of youth — How actors regard 
Delsartisin — All good acting in harmony with its 
teachings — Robert Browning — Lainperti and his 
method — The German school of singing — Salvini, 
Rossi, and Ristori at home. 

Mr. Edmund Russell, after several years' ab- 
sence in Europe, has returned to America. Mr. 
Russell is well known by his lectures on art, 
dress, decoration; and kindred subjects, as well as 
through his paintings, and while a talk with him 
is always interesting and instructive, it promised 
to be exceptionally bright after his travels and 
his meeting with world-famous people. Of course, 
Delsartism was spoken of first. 

" What is the condition and progress of Delsart- 
ism in England compared with America ? " 

"When we went to London three years ago 
the name of Delsarte was almost unknown there. 
I found but three persons in England who had 



42 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

ever heard of him and his work, and, strangely, 
all of them had been personal friends of his. 
They were the elder Garcia, brother of Malibran; 
Sir Frederick Leighton, President of the Royal 
Academy; and Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith). 
They all spoke of him in the highest terms both 
as a man and as an artist. Prior to my visit to 
London, Felix Moscheles, the famous painter, son 
of the composer, had spent two years here and 
had heard me lecture on Delsarte. When he re- 
turned to England, he excited much interest in 
the subject by his frequent question at all gath- 
erings of artists, 'Have you ever heard of Del- 
sarte ?' and always met with the same negative 
reply. One day, at a garden party given by 
Burne-Jones, putting his question to a little old 
man whose piercing eye flashed the fire of genius, 
he answered : ' Heard of him ! yes; he w T as a friend 
of mine/ It was the elder Garcia that spoke. 

" It was my privilege," continued Mr. Russell, 
"to talk much with Garcia about his famous 
friend. ' He was the greatest singer I ever heard/ 
said Garcia one day; 'with, no voice at all, such 
was his expression that one would rather listen 
to him than to the finest voice in the world/ His 
voice is what would be called e veiled/ but his 
wonderful expression made his song seem alive. 
If Garcia had told me/' added Mr. Russell, " that 
Delsarte was the greatest actor he had ever seen, 
I should not have been surprised ; but when he so 



DELSAETISM IN ENGLAND. 43 

praised Delsarte's singing*, the art of which Gar- 
cia is so superior a judge, then we must believe 
that it was more than wonderful. Indeed, every 
one that knew of Delsarte at all, in Italy and 
France, spoke of his singing-. The Baron de Moy- 
acque, an old Frenchman, told me that he had 
heard Delsarte when he was young-, and ag*ain 
twenty years afterward, and he seemed physi- 
cally unchanged. He seemed to have discovered 
the secret of perpetual youth. I must not forget 
to add that Garcia was present at the court of 
Louis Phillippe when Delsarte was so ro3 7 ally 
received there, and confirmed the distinguished 
consideration and esteem with which the monarch 
received Delsarte. I asked if he was well known 
in Paris. ' Certainly/ said Garcia; 'he was con- 
sidered the greatest artist and teacher of his 
time. Nearly all the present teachers of the Con- 
servatoire studied with him. No! no one knows 
him in London; but if Patti sneezes it is cabled 
round the globe. The great teacher is often for- 
gotten in the achievements of his pupils, who 
prefer to stand before the world as God-made 
geniuses rather than acknowledge that any 
earthly hand helped fashion them to a higher 
symmetry/ he added a little bitterly/' 

" Why is it, Mr. Russell, that the Delsarte sys- 
tem is nowadays applied almost exclusively to 
dramatic art or to aesthetic calisthenics, if Del- 
sarte himself was a master in all the arts ?" 



44 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

" Because the system has been taken up by and 
presented through actors or those who were more 
interested in its application to bodily culture, 
and at first thought, the art of expression seemed 
most needed on the stage. The Delsarte system 
contains the fundamental principles of all art; it 
is universal in its application. It is not an inven- 
tion, it is not something new; it is simply a con- 
cise, scientific formulation of the hitherto undis- 
covered natural laws that are the foundation of 
every true work of art. If the system should be 
lost to-day it could be rediscovered. Delsarte 
had that many-sided nature that is necessary for 
a philosopher and a true artist, and his claim was 
recognized by monarch and peasant. The last 
cross of the Legion of Honor given under the 
Empire was bestowed on him, and he was deco- 
rated for many scientific inventions." 

" Why is it, then, that of all people actors most 
decry and avoid the system ? " 

" Because with most, if they accept its teach- 
ings as correct, their work would be found very 
faulty, and it would require much labor to bring 
it into accord with natural expression. They 
may have made a small hit somewhere, and are 
content. All great actors are instinctively in 
harmony with Delsarte's teachings. Their grace 
comes naturally, and they cannot understand how 
some must work to obtain that ease, but it can 
be obtained with patient study, and so well that 



DELSAKTISM IN ENGLAND. 45 

it can be forgotten again and this time remain. 
Whether an actor accepts Delsartism or not, he 
cannot get away from its principles. Every time 
he does a good thing it agrees with Delsarte's 
formulations, and every time he does a poor thing 
he disobeys some natural law therein laid 
down." 

"Must a painting or a sculpture be true to 
' Delsarte principles in order to be great ? " 

"Do not say ( Delsarte principles/ as if he in- 
vented some rules. Gustav Delsarte used to say : 
' You Americans are always talking about teach- 
ing the Delsarte System. My father taught Art 
— he used the Delsarte System/ A work can be 
great in technique, in balance of line, in light and 
shade, in the perfection of representation of tex- 
tures, flesh, and color, in brilliancy of design or in 
daring execution, and yet in its core be entirely 
false. Delsarte said : ' Art represents nature with 
the non-essentials left out/ Most modern art 
wonderfully represents the non-essentials, and 
leaves out all that would move us and teach us 
and elevate us. People are not trained to look 
upon art seriously. A pupil is taught how to 
make charcoal look like plaster, or paint like skin, 
is given a little knowledge of art-materials, how 
to mix colors, when to use cobalt blue, when to 
avoid a vegetable color, etc., but no knowledge of 
the underlying art-principles of nature and ex- 
pression." 



46 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

" Do you think it important for all classes of 
art-workers to practise the Delsartean exer- 
cises ? » 

"Certainly. They develop feeling 1 as well as 
bodily mechanism. The will must be taken out 
to leave a free passage for the expression of the 
emotions. Decomposing exercises should be prac- 
tised for the arm and hand to give a free sweep 
of the brush or a firm touch of the piano-keys. 
Rubinstein does not hold his arm motionless and 
play with his fingers : he raises the whole arm, 
bringing the hand down now with a heavy, now 
with a light touch, but using every muscle and 
in perfect rhythm. That is why he gets such 
resonance in both his folate and piano passages. 
The sinking of the wrist as in violin-playing, and 
the feather-movement for the hand, are invalua- 
ble exercises." 

" How were the Delsarte principles received in 
England ? " 

" With great curiosity at first, then interest, 
and even enthusiasm. Our first lecture was given 
at Felix Moscheles* studio, Robert Browning- was 
much interested in the system, and Gladstone 
said that he hoped it would be taken up by every 
school and college in England. Gladstone's ar- 
ticulation is the finest I have ever heard. In 
Italy the pupils of Lamperti all studied with us. 
Besides this, we had pupils from the Drury Lane 
and Covent Garden Operas and the Carl Rosa 



DELSAKTISM IN ENGLAND. 47 

Opera Company, and man} 7 London actors, sing- 
ers, clergymen, and lawyers. 

"We spent summer before last with Lamperti, 
the great ( maestro,' then at Cernobbio. He is 
still teaching, although if you should ask about 
him in Milan, you would doubtless be told that 
there was an old mummy somewhere by that 
name who gave a few lessons, but that he was 
nearly blind and deaf, had almost no vital power, 
gave his lessons in bed ; and such nonsense. This 
is not true. I saw him give many lessons, and 
never heard lessons of such brilliancy and power. 
The severity of criticism, always kind, however, 
the subtlety of analysis, the patience and energ3 r , 
and above all his depth and knowledge I have 
never seen equalled. It is difficult to understand 
him, as he cannot speak English and prefers to 
speak his Milanese dialect; but his wife acts as 
his interpreter and, to a large extent, as his ac- 
companist. She is very much younger than he, 
but she adores him. When a pupil enters for a 
lesson Lamperti seems at first listless, but when 
the exercises begin the master becomes interested, 
and his fervor increases until he is wrapt in the 
lesson. His prices are from twenty-five to fifty 
francs a lesson for private instruction, and fifteen 
francs a lesson for dairy instruction to regular 
pupils, who have the privilege of hearing the 
criticism of others. He prefers to teach two at a 
time, giving first one ten minutes and then the 



48 A DELSAETEA2T SCKAP-BOOK. 

other the same time. This allows the voice to 
rest, yet the pupil still is instructed in listening" 
to his companion. - He does not coach, except 
where the person has "been a pupil of his and is 
already thoroughly trained; then he will help 
him in a new role. 

" Lamperti does not work for compass or exe- 
cution," continued Mr. Russell, "like so many 
teachers. Quality — quality — quality is his aim, 
and to enrich tone is his chief care. He insists 
upon exercising' the voice very softly at first, for 
he says that if a good resonance cannot be pro- 
duced on a soft tone it certainly cannot be made 
on a loud tone. He practises for months just on 
tones. He also begins in the middle or medium 
range of the voice, saying that if you work on a 
voice at the centre it will grow richer at the ends, 
but if you work at the ends it will always thin 
at the centre. A Russian countess, who was a 
pupil of his twenty years ago, and who has lately 
seen him, says that his power of teaching seems 
to improve rather than grow less, and that he is 
greater to-day than ever, although he is over 
eighty years old. 

" He bemoans the decline of Italian opera and 
singing. Verdi's last opera, ' Otello/ was a great 
disappointment to Lamperti. ( Yerdi is no longer 
Italian, he is no longer Verdi/ he said sadry. 
He considers 'Rigoletto' to be Verdi's finest 
opera, but prefers Bellini to all other composers 



DELSAKTISM IN ENGLAND. 49 

for the expression of real heart-feeling. Of course 
he is opposed to German opera." 

u What do you think of the effect of German 
opera on the voice, and can a singer trained in 
the Italian style of singing* take up German 
music without injury to his voice ? " 

"Yes, if a singer really understood his own 
voice he could, for he would know how to control 
it. But so few do understand the voice. They 
all try to get their effects with force instead of 
quality, and the voice soon goes. All opera-houses 
are too big for the average voice to fill without 
straining. German opera is very dramatic, and 
most singers do not understand how to be dra- 
matic without injuring their voices. They get their 
effects at a great expense of effort. Dramatic 
singing above all requires a perfect knowledge 
and practice of the diaphragmatic breath and 
the control of the abdominal muscles. Singers 
do not understand the Delsarte principle of con- 
trol at the centre in all great exertion. Dramatic 
power must come from control and not from 
exertion." 

" Did you see any actors of note ? " 

" I met Salvini, Rossi, Ristori, and others. Sal- 
vini is living in Florence, and is manager of the 
Teatro Salvini, in that cit}\ He told me that for 
the first time in his life he began to feel acting 
an exertion, and that he should not act much 
more. He has the highest opinion of Delsarte 
4 



50 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

and his teachings. His son, Mario, is a sculptor 
of dramatic ability. Rossi has a beautiful house 
in Florence and a villa on the hills. One room in 
it may be said to tell the story of his life, for it is 
hung- with life-size painting's of the actor in all 
his principal characters and lined with cases filled 
with trophies of his career, laurel crowns and rare 
gifts from all cities. Lord Lytton told me that 
Bernhardt had been a pupil of Delsarte, and I 
think her wonderful management of her arms 
tells the story. Ristori spoke to me in contempt- 
uous terms of Bernhardt^ Shakespearean charac- 
ters, declaring them to be nothing but grisettes. 
Dr. Momerie, the famous Foundling preacher, 
was much interested in Delsartism. He intends 
to visit America on a lecture tour next year. He 
is one of the most popular English orators, and 
is considered the most worthy successor of Dean 
Stanley. Some of his effects in oratory are re- 
markable. 

" If all Delsarteans would work together they 
would have an influence upon art and physical 
development such as the world has never seen. 
They could revolutionize the whole art world, for 
they hold the key to the noblest and purest truths 
known to man." 



The Singing of Gounod.— M. Gounod, whom I have just met at 
Madame Adelina Patti's, is most enthusiastic on the rendering of his 
music by the diva. I mentioned yesterday that he went through at her 
hotel the principal scenes in which Juliet appears, singing the part of 
Romeo as only M. Gounod knows how to sing. None who have not 



DELSARTISM IN ENGLAND. 51 



heard the composer at the piano can realize what effect can be produced 
by a singer who has no voice.— London Daily Telegraph. 

Patti and Nilsson.— Mr. Russell, when lecturing atDrury Lane Theatre, 
speaking of the enthusiasm created by Delsarte when he sang in Paris, 
suddenly stopped short, and folding his arms and drawing himself up, 
imitated the "stony British 11 manner and voice of the aggressive 
female, who says "7 never heard of him 11 with an air as if to say "He 
could not have been great if I never heard of him. 11 Then, with a quick 
return to his natural manner, he said, " Perhaps not, he sang only two 
years, and— in Paris. But how long did it take you to ' hear of ' Patti, Nils- 
son, and others whose names are now household words ? Some of these 
ladies are certainly thirty -five years old, and have been singing for more 
than forty years." At this juncture two ladies, closely veiled, rose and 
left the theatre. Whether they were Patti and Nilsson or any other 
whose " names are household words, 11 must be left to the imagination.— 
Texas Siftings. 

Delsartism.— Delsartism helps to greater living ; for it gives to the 
human being power of complete expression. It sets the body to match 
the soul, that, together, they may be a unit which shall stand for truth 
and the expression of truth.— Clara Isabel Mitchell. 

The Course to Pursue.—" As the man who would discourse sweet 
music, must tune the strings of his instrument to the medium point of 
tension, so he who would arrive at the condition of Buddha must exer- 
cise himself in a medium course of discipline. 11 — Gautama. 



52 A DELSAETEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"Of the peculiar value attached to the at- 
mosphere by the Orientals, and therefore of the 
importance of the personification of that element 
in their theological systems, we can judge from 
the fact that the Sanskrit root of the word for 
God in the Latin, Greek, and other derived tongues, 
signifies equally breath. The Greek Pneuma and 
the Sanskrit Div, the root of deity and divine, 
have an identical meaning in the air. The world 
was supposed to live by a process of breathing, 
and the thoughts of men's minds were regarded 
as inspired together with their breath."— The Keys 
of the Creeds. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BREATH OF LIFE. 

Control at the centre — Freedom at the extremities — 
" Lift up your chest " — How to acquire the habit of 
breathing naturally — The child and the animal — 
Reserve power. 

" You may add years to your life, if you will, 
by the simple act of breathing*. It makes all the 
difference in the world how you get the air of 
heaven into your lungs, and how much you get. 
The air we breathe, in the main, is not to be com- 
plained of; but the trouble is, few people know 
how to appropriate their due and needful share 
of it. They gasp and catch and push along in a 
nervous way, taking short, puny breaths like the 
forced puffs of a locomotive when the steam is 
low. Life is a hard journey; no one can hold out 
any length of time with spasmodic action. If 
one wishes to get the best from one's self it must 



THE BREATH OF LIFE. 53 

be by steady work and gradual development and 
growth." 

The speaker was Mrs. Edmund Russell, the 
well-known exponent of Delsarte's philosophy of 
expression. 

"Animals and young children," continued Mrs. 
Russell, " breathe naturally. They take time to 
fill their lungs; they have no strain, no pressure 
upon them. The moment a child crosses the 
bridge of self-consciousness, the moment that 
feeling, emotion, mentality, come into play, nature 
is at a disadvantage. It grows worse and worse 
as the demands of life grow stronger. What is 
to be done ? Simply stop; go back to the ABC 
and learn how to breathe. Why! the men and 
women in the rush of life never think seriously of 
what they ask of their bodies, particularly of the 
lungs. They distort, compress, misuse, devitalize 
them with every breath. What stands in the 
way of changing this ? Want of time, want of 
thought, want of knowledge. People think f it 
doesn't matter/ They get on ' somehow/ Some 
day when organs, weakened by long misuse, give 
warning of their flagging, they waken to find 
that they have wasted the force of a grand ma- 
chine—they are not the men and women they 
might have been. 

" Delsarte was anatomist, physiologist, artist, 
all in one. He went to the hospitals, to the 
morgues, to the streets of Paris and studied men; 



54 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

the science of humanity. He knew every muscle, 
joint, and organ of the body, and the special func- 
tion of each. He knew too that action and force 
depended upon the play of the lungs. If you wish 
to have command of yourself, you must know how 
to breathe ; if you wish to walk with erect and 
easy carriage, without swagger or wabble, affec- 
tation or stiffness, you must know how to breathe; 
if you wish to be able to express yourself freely, 
quietly, with the manner and tone that compel 
attention, you must know how to breathe. 

" The first movement is to get the chest up. I 
should like to make a call that would reach every 
man and woman in the country : ' Lift up your 
chest!' When one says this, nine-tenths of 
them stiffen at the neck, throw themselves back- 
ward, and project the body below the waist, the 
whole figure out of line : they have ( straightened 
up/ ISTo; you should get the poise of a Greek 
statue. Lift the chest, keeping the shoulders 
down, until it is on a line with the toes; this 
throws the tension on the centre of the body, 
where it should be. The heart and lungs now 
have free play. Close the lips; draw the air in 
through the nostrils, using the muscles below the 
diaphragm as a bellows, until the pressure against 
the ribs has a bursting sensation. Keep this ten- 
sion firmly and steadily as long as you can; then 
slowly and gradually let the breath out through 
the lips. If you wish to sing, to recite, or even 



THE BREATH OF LIFE. 55 

talk, see what power is at your command. The 
muscles below the diaphragm are so little used 
except by professional people, who know their 
value, that they are weak and flabby with most 
people. 

" Try this breathing- — inspiration, retention, ex- 
piration — three movements — at night before you 
go to bed, when the body is free; in the morning, 
before you dress. When you walk up the avenue, 
take in great, grand, glorious ' lung-fulls ' of air 
until full breathing becomes a habit. You will 
at first, of course, forget it during the first few 
weeks of practice, when you go into the crowded 
shops and meet hundreds of restless, eager, hur- 
rying people, like yourself, who have more affairs 
to take care of than time in which to transact 
them. Like the rest, you will gasp and catch 
and jerk out instructions to milliner and modiste, 
and will come home worn out and faint, with a 
not-ivorth-while feeling about the whole busi- 
ness of life, perhaps. But recall now the ' breath 
of life/ and it will bring again repose, calmness, 
serenity. 

" Believe me, breathing properly is a certain 
cure for nervousness, shyness, and embarrass- 
ment. It gives command, freedom of motion, a 
sense of power. There is no better exercise to 
acquire a good habit of breathing than reading 
aloud. 

" Try how much can be done easily, without 



56 A DELSABTEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

strain, upon a single inflation of the lungs. Never 
permit yourself to gasp, to catch up or piece out 
of breath. In an artist, an actor or singer we 
would call it a wretched, bad method ; it is merely 
no method at all. You know what it is to have 
a person talk to you with a rush and tumble of 
words and ideas thrown at you, pitched at you, 
in a confused, breathless heap; pouring along, in 
a conversational current, like the waters of Lo- 
dore. You know what a tired, worn, nervous feel- 
ing comes over him who must listen. Women 
call it vivacity, sprightliness. It is a form of ner- 
vousness, of excitement that nothing but quiet, 
steady control of the lungs will overcome. The 
need of New York life is repose, calmness, rest. 
The man or woman who learns — it is a lesson to 
be learned — to create this atmosphere by manner, 
speech, tone of voice, who can give expression to 
self at its best, is student, teacher, philosopher, 
all in one." 

Mrs. Russell was asked for her ideas of relaxa- 
tion. 

"It is not necessary to isolate one's self for 
rest. You can 'let yourself go' for a few mo- 
ments in the midst of a crowd on Broadway, at 
the play, in church, anywhere. It is the universal 
habit to hold on to one's self, w T ith a grip that 
would almost lift one's ow T n weight; muscles 
tightened, nerves strained, to no purpose in the 
world. Mere waste — the mind is too eager and 



THE BEEATH OF LIFE. 57 

fast for the body. A woman does a day's shop- 
ping" ten times over in her mind during* the 
hours she gives to it. She is always ahead of 
herself, at the next place doing- the next thing-. 
The result is exhaustion; in time, perhaps, nerv- 
ous prostration. 

" How shall it be avoided ? Take the will out 
of the body when it is not in action. In walking 
let the lower limbs do the work : the arms have 
nothing- to do; let them be carried as attach- 
ments, pendulums, if you will, at rest. If you 
ride in a cab, or in the street-car, let them fall in 
an easy, free position; do not feel that they must 
be clasped tog-ether in deathless grip of the little 
pocket-book. Try l letting- g-o ; ' it is a great rest. 
The command is given by the mind; it g-oes like 
an electric current to the tips of the fingers and 
toes. I know a lady who told me when she first 
came to study some of Delsarte's gymnastics 
with me, that on social occasions of importance 
she had the feeling of ' tying up in knots/ Yet 
she is a society woman. No one imagined how 
much she suffered. ' Letting go * one's self is like 
the habit of breathing — it must be learned and 
then acquired by repetition, repetition, repetition. 
One must go back, as I said, to the A B C of 
nature; must know what it is to be a child in 
naturalness. 

* Men try to do too much, to express too much. 
Reservation is strength. Look at Salvini. How 



58 A DELSARTEA]S T SCRAP-BOOK. 

few gestures lie makes; how quiet his manner; 
every turn of the hand, every glance of the eye, 
means something. He wastes nothing; he is an 
economist of emotion until he reaches the climax, 
and then you recall — who can forget ? — the fury 
of the lion, Othello beyond himself ! But even at 
the supreme moment of his passion one feels still 
that the limit is not reached. His power is sug- 
gested ; he does not permit it to be measured." 

E. M. T. 



The Animal Breath.— In about nine-tenths of the animal kingdom, 
namely, all the invertebrata— the mouth is appropriated exclusively to 
taking in food, and has nothing to do with respiration.— &*> Charles Bell. 

Breathe Only Through Your Nose.— A Dutch physician has recently 
declared that a close connection exists between the exercise of our 
mental faculties and disorders of the nose. The opinion is expressed that 
if it were generally known how many cases of chronic headache, of in- 
ability to learn or to perform mental work were due to chronic disease 
of the nose, many of these cases would be easily cured, and the number 
of child victims of the so-called over-pressure in education would be 
notably reduced. According to the above-mentioned authority, it would 
seem that breathing through the nose is absolutely indispensable in order 
to secure the full value of the mental capacity. 

The Abdominal Muscles in Breathing.— The rhythmic motions of 
the respiration of animals are incomplete unless they extend beyond the 
organs adapted to the aeration of the blood, so as practically to include 
the mobile mass constituting the digestive apparatus and the pelvic con- 
tents, in the lifting, surging motion propagated from the chest. This 
mechanical impulse produces several indispensable effects, which in- 
volve the displacement of the fluids of the whole trunk, including the 
contents of the blood, lymphatic, lacteal, and other vessels, as well as the 
interstitial fluids depending on these ; promotes absorption of digested 
matter ; fructifies the muscular nutrition and power of all visceral 
organs ; and, not the least, maintains against gravity and all other 
forces combined the natural mechanical and also the physiological rela- 
tions of the contents of the pelvis.— Dr. Geo. H. Taylor. 



DRESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN. 59 



" And as God created man to be the lord of the 
earth, and to occupy all portions of it, He consti- 
tuted him with a wide range of adaptability to 
meet the exigencies of the circumstances and 
conditions in which he might be placed ; but 
always, of necessity, under this great and immu- 
table law, that in proportion as man turns aside 
from the truth of his natural and perfect consti- 
tutional adaptation, and educates himself, by vir- 
tue of his constitutional adaptability, to habits, 
circumstances, and conditions less adapted to the 
truth of his constitutional nature, he impairs all 
the powers of that nature and abbreviates his ex- 
istence.'- -Sylvester Graham, M.D. 



CHAPTER VII. 

DRESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN. 

Dr. Sargent, of Harvard University, on physical devel- 
opment — The waist-line — The hips — The origin of 
lacing — The pure ideals of the early Greeks— Some 
physical experiments— A race for health — American 
women. 

Since the hips of woman are much wider than 
those of men of the same stature, we should ex- 
pect to find the waist proportionally larger in 
women than in men. In women of the primitive 
ages there could have been no waist, and in some 
of the Indian tribes of the present time there is 
no evidence of the slightest bodily constriction in 
this region. "What, then, is the primary cause of 
the narrow contracted waist as seen in woman 
throughout the civilized world to-day ? 

At the time of the worship of the beautiful by 
the Greeks, women quickly discerned the harmo- 



60 A DELSARTEAltf SCRAP-BOOK. 

nious curves and symmetrical lines that received 
the approval of the men of that age, and they 
fashioned themselves accordingly. The ideals 
predominating at that time have been trans- 
mitted to us in marble and bronze, and illustrate 
the highest ideals of feminine beauty and loveli- 
ness of figure. As soon as the moral fibre of the 
Greeks grew lax the courtesans set the fashion, 
and in order to make the hips more prominent 
the graceful curve of the pelvis was gradually 
increased by constricting the waist with a many- 
layered girdle. This custom was then carried to 
such an extent that, according to Cerviotte, Hip- 
pocrates "vigorously reproached the ladies of 
Cos for too tightly compressing their ribs and 
thus interfering with their breathing powers." 
The custom was imitated by the Romans, and 
the works of Martial and Galen frequently allude 
to the unnaturally small waist of the women of 
their times. In fact, stays and breast-bands were 
regarded by Galen as the cause of many of the 
evils attributed to them at the present day. 

From an anatomical point of view the tissues 
of a woman do not differ materially from the tis- 
sues of a man. The bones, muscles, arteries, and 
nerves are similarly constituted, and are gov- 
erned by the same laws in their development. 
So, also, are the heart, lungs, stomach, and brain. 
Anything that will impair the function of an 
organ in one sex will certainly interfere with its 



DEESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN. 61 

action in the other. If you put a tight bandage 
around the waist of a man, the physiological func- 
tions of the abdominal and thoracic organs are 
for the time impaired, and the man is unable to 
make more than two-thirds of the mental and 
physical exertion of which he is capable. When 
we reflect that woman has constricted her body 
for centuries, we believe that to this fashion 
alone is due much of her failure to realize her 
best opportunities for development, and through 
natural heritage to advance the mental and phy- 
sical progress of the race. We are the more 
firmly convinced of this fact from the rapid ad- 
vancement that women make in health, strength, 
and physical improvement under favorable cir- 
cumstances. This would seem to indicate that 
their bodies had been held in arrears and were 
pining for freedom of movement and exercise. 

In order to ascertain the influence of tight 
clothing upon the action of the heart during ex- 
ercise, a dozen young women consented this sum- 
mer to run 540 yards in their loose gymnasium 
garments and then to run the same distance with 
corsets on. The running time was two minutes 
and thirty seconds for each person at each trial, 
and in order that there should be no cardiac ex- 
citement or depression following the first test, 
the second trial was made the following day. Be- 
fore beginning the running the average heart-im- 
pulse was 84: beats to the minute; after running 



62 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

the above-named distance the heart-impulse was 
152 beats to the minute; the average natural 
waist-girth being 25 inches. The next day cor- 
sets were worn during the exercise and the aver- 
age girth of waist was reduced to 24 inches. The 
same distance was run in the same time by all, 
and immediately afterward the average heart- 
impulse was found to be 168 beats per minute. 
When I state that I should feel myself justified 
in advising an athlete not to enter a running or 
rowing race whose heart-impulse was 160 beats 
per minute after a little exercise, even though 
there were not the slightest evidence of disease, 
one can form some idea of the wear. and tear on 
this important organ and the plrysiological loss 
entailed upon the system in women who force it 
to labor for over half their lives under such a 
disadvantage as the tight corset imposes. 

In order to ascertain the effect of tight cloth- 
ing upon respiration the spirometer was tried. 
The average natural girth of the chest over the 
ninth rib was 28 inches, and with corsets 26 inches. 
The average lung capacity when corsets were 
worn was 134 cubic inches; when the corsets were 
removed the test showed an average lung capac- 
ity of 167 cubic inches — a gain of 33 cubic inches. 
Who can estimate its value to the entire system ? 
Why preach the gospel of fresh air to women 
who deliberately throw away twenty per cent of 
it by the use of tight stays and corsets ? 



DRESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN. 63 

At the present time women as a class have 
more leisure than men for self-improvement, and 
we must look to them to help on the higher evo- 
lution of mind and body, not only in perfecting* 
themselves, but in helping to perfect others. Al- 
ready three-fourths of the school-teaching force 
in the United States is composed of women, and 
they will soon be in the majority as instructors 
in physical training. The gospel of fresh air and 
physical improvement is being slowly imbibed by 
our best families, and the stock of fine specimens 
of physical womanhood is slowly and steadily im- 
proving. When the young women throughout 
the land shall have felt the influence of this new 
religion, and become thoroughly aroused to the 
importance of making the most of themselves in 
body as well as in mind, we shall not only elevate 
the average mental and physical condition of the 
masses, and so raise the athletic standard, but 
we shall be much more likely than at the present 
time to produce a few of the intellectual giants 
that are needed to grapple with the great prob- 
lems of our complex civilization. 



The Dressing of the Neck.— Mr. Russell utterly condemns the high 
standing collar. "The neck requires perfect freedom of motion, " he 
declared, " else natural expression and grace must be destroyed. The 
neck is the stem of the flower ; to contract it is to make the whole body 
stiff and expressionless.'" The habit of wearing gloves at all times was 
also condemned, because that, too, hindered expression by making th3 
hand stiff. "A stiff hand looks larger than a pliable one," said the lec- 
turer, '* and lacks in beauty, too ; for motion is a much higher beauty 
than form. So with the foot. Flexible shoes should be worn in-doors as 



64 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



much as possible, the soft Oriental shoe being much better adapted to 
preserve free aud untrammeled motion than the foot-wear demanded by 
our streets." 

The craze of American women to be doing something was attributed to 
nervousness. li The necessity for something to do — tidy-making, crochet- 
ing, fancy work of various kinds— had made American parlors atiorror,'''' 
he said. 

"Relax ! relax ! Let go the tense hold of your arms that is wearing 
out your vitality, and let them hang limply at your side. You will get 
rest by doing this. Sleepless people will fall asleep. Stop holding your- 
selves in a knot and relax. The old-school gymnastics were fundamen- 
tally wrong. They tightened up extremities, causing a loss of control at 
the centre. Reverse this by holding up the chest, breathing slowly and 
deeply through the nose, and relaxing the extremities. "—Chicago 
Tribune. 

A SCHOOL IDYL. 

Ram it in, cram it in, 

Children's heads are hollow ; 
Slam it in, jam it in, 

Still there's more to follow— 
Hygiene and history, 
Astronomic mystery, 
Algebra, histology, 
Latin, etymology, 
Botany, geometry, 
Greek and trigonometry — 
Ram it in, cram it in, 

Children's heads are hollow. 

Rap it in, tap it in — 

What are teachers paid for ? 
Bang it in, slam it in— 

What are children made for? 
Ancient archaeology, 
Aryan philology, 
Prosody, zoology 
Physics, clinictology, 
Calculus and mathematics, 
Rhetoric and hydrostatics — 
Hoax it in, coax it in, 

Children's heads are hollow 

Rub it in, club it in, 

All there is of learning ; 
Punch it in, crunch it in, 

Quench their childish yearning 
For the field and grassy nook, 
Meadow green and rippling brook. 



DRESS AXD DEVELOPMENT OF AVOMEN. 65 



Drive such wicked thoughts afar, 
Teach the children that they are 
But machines to cram it in, 
Bang it in, slam it in — 
That their heads are hollow. 

Scold it in, mould it in, 

All that they can swallow ; 
Fold it in, hold it in, 

Still there's more to follow. 
Faces pinched, sad, and pale, 
Tell the same undying tale- 
Tell of moments robbed from sleep, 
Meals untasted. studies deep. 
Those who've passed the furnace through, 
With aching brow, will tell to you 
How the teacher crammed it in, 
Rammed it in, jammed it in, 
Crunched it in. punched it in, 
Rubbed it in, clubbed it in, 
Pressed it in and caressed it in, 
Rapped it in and slapped it in 

When their heads were hollow. —Puck. 

" The brain can be trained just like the hand. This is the great object 
of education. An empty head is an evil head ; an untrained brain is a 
mischievous brain. The brain must be used all round ; and perhaps the 
greatest danger of school education at present is that the memory is 
cultivated principally or almost alone. It is not walking encyclopaedias 
that do good in the world, but skilled brains able to think and not merely 
to remember." 

"We need to consider the old elements and the new in every question. 
There is danger of that too cautious spirit which resists all change be- 
cause ' the past has been good enough/ The past has held many errors 
which modern thought is bringing to light, and, as higher aims and bet- 
ter methods are coming to the front, they rightly claim our assistance 
and influence.'" 



66 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



" iEstheticism within us represents our faculty, 
conscious or unconscious, of apprehending and 
appreciating the tendency toward the perfect in 
nature. A nature's higher order of harmony per- 
vading all realms of creation.' 11 — G. Von Taube. 

"Education in any line is conscious training of 
mind or body to act unconsciously. ,, — Wm. Geo. 
Jordan. 

. . . " An all-explaining spirit 
Teaching divine things by analogy, 
With mortal and material.'' 1 — Fest us. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NATURAL HUMAN FIGURE. 

A London letter — The role of the body in expression — 
The effect of disturbing harmony — Our eyes ac- 
customed to discord — Tight lacing — Health, beauty, 
and expression dependent on perfect freedom. 

To the Editor of the London Homeopathic World. 

Sir: — In taking" up the question of corsets from 
the point of view of health, you are no doubt 
on perfectly safe ground. But the question has 
other bearing-s which have been brought to my 
notice in attending 1 the lectures on " Expression " 
by Edmund Russell, the Delsartean artist from 
America, and on these, with your permission, I 
will now make a few observations. The human 
fig-ure has a beauty of its own which is no less 
precious than health; and the human body is an 
instrument of expression second only in import- 



THE NATURAL HUMAN FIGURE. 67 

ance to the face; and in some respects not even 
second, as it multiplies all the face says and adds 
passion and emotion to what it tells us, the face 
being- principally mental in its role of expression. 

All the greater harmonies and higher cour- 
tesies of life must extend over the whole body. 
Most people will be ready to deny this right off, 
I have no doubt; but let them for a single day 
observe the shapes and attitudes of the bodies 
of those they have to do with, and then ask them- 
selves if this is not the case. The cramped chest, 
the bent body, the rounded back, do not give us 
the same impression as wide shoulders, upright 
carriage, and unbroken front. I do not deny that 
the artificial life of modern times may produce 
bodily deformity in a man of strong and upright 
character; but I maintain that the man's power 
in the world would be greater if his spirit was not 
"cabined, cribbed, confined" in such a wretched 
shell. 

But to return to the question of beauty. We 
are told that man was made upright; and if we 
look at the nobler specimens of savage tribes we 
may believe that this was the case. It is rarer 
to find in civilized nations examples of perfect 
physical form. We go back to the ancient 
Greeks for our typical instances. A free, open- 
air, athletic life was eminently conducive to the 
production of health and beauty, and for our ad- 
miration and admonition they have left us me- 



68 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

morials of themselves in stone. Take one of the 
most perfect examples of them — say the Venus 
of Milo — and put on a pair of stays. Imagine 
that the stone has become soft, and lace them up 
till you have produced the much-coveted hour- 
glass contraction which modern young- ladies tor- 
ture themselves to produce, and see how you 
have improved on your statue. It is evident 
that you have completely ruined the harmony of 
its contour; and that is precisely the effect of 
stay-lacing on modern young ladies. It is not so 
apparent as it would be in the case of the Venus 
of Milo, for this reason : Nature is so kind and 
accommodating that she will always do the best 
she can under any circumstances, however un- 
toward ; and as soon as the harmony is broken in 
one part she tries her best to change all the other 
parts to suit the new conditions. The figure de- 
teriorates in all directions, and the original out- 
lines become less and less conspicuous. The back 
becomes rounded; the spine loses its original 
beautiful curves; the ribs fall in, and the stomach 
obtrudes itself unduly. There is no help for this. 
The great organs of the body should by rights 
hang suspended under the arch of the ribs in the 
space formed by the dome of the diaphragm. But 
when this space is obliterated, or nearly so, by 
the modern corset, the poor squeezed organs must 
find some place to abide in — and that is below 
the milliner-made waist. 



THE NATURAL HUMAN FIGURE. 69 

The question of expression may at first sight 
be thought identical with that of beaut3 T , but in 
reality the two are quite distinct, though related. 
A man may have a handsome figure, but if he 
holds himself badly he may betra3 T an unpleasant 
character. A woman may have a pretty face, 
and yet have an unpleasing expression. With- 
out our knowing it, we create an impression, fa- 
vorable or otherwise, by the way in which we hold 
ourselves; and without our being aware of it, we 
take our impression of other people from the way 
in which they hold themselves or present them- 
selves to us. In all great emotion the chest ex- 
pands, and especially the lower part of the chest, 
where the ribs are freest and meant to expand 
most. Now, this is just the part that corsets 
constrict most and include within the artificial 
waist. Possibly they may not compress the ribs 
in all states, but they must inevitably prevent 
their proper play and movement, and so hinder 
their development. The ribs are kept down. A 
generous character is made to give the expres- 
sion of a mean character, incapable of feeling any 
great emotion, and, in my opinion, the character 
itself does not wholly escape injury. It is of the 
greatest importance that men and women should 
show their true front to the world, and not make 
themselves out to be less noble than they really 
are. They will never be able to be true to them- 
selves so long as they squeeze in their ribs, round 



70 A DELSAETEA^" SCKAP-BOOK. 

their backs, and practically break their bodies 
into two pieces, with a narrow isthmus between. 
I hope I am not taking up too much space, but 
I have been much interested in what I have seen 
of the Delsartean gymnastics. I am told that in 
America they are extensively used in public and 
private schools. Can you tell me if you know of 
and approve of them ? Do they resemble the Swed- 
ish gymnastics ? Are they suited for schools ? 
Yours faithfully, C. G. W. 

The letter we publish from our correspondent, 
C. G. W., opens up another aspect of the stay 
question, which will perhaps appeal to some of 
our readers more powerfully than the question 
of health. Mr. Russell is the apostle of the Del- 
sartean philosophy, which takes for its basis the 
triple nature of man — moral, mental, and physi- 
cal — and asks the question of every department 
>f nature, art, and life how it stands related to 
nan in respect to these three divisions of his 
oeing. It thus affords an analysis of immense 
practical importance that is capable of being 
brought to bear on questions of the most varied 
character. 

Brought to this test, Mr. Russell tells us that 
corsets are injurious in more respects than that 
of health. They destroy the beauty and the har- 
mony of the figure; they damage, to an immense 
extent, its power as an instrument of expression; 



THE NATURAL HUMAN FIGURE. 71 

they rob it of the power of expressing its emo 
tions; and the result of all this is to react unfa- 
vorably on the mind and character of their unfor- 
tunate prisoners. 

Of course all this has a very decided bearing on 
health, as Mr. Russell would be the first to allow. 
"A sound heart and a sound mind in a sound 
body " is the very essence of the teaching of Del- 
sarte and his disciples; but if either the body, or 
the mind, or the heart is ill-treated, the whole 
being will suffer loss. This is self-evident on the 
face of it, and we trust that the consideration of 
it will rouse up those most interested to enter 
into the practical difficulties with which the ques- 
tion is beset. 

It is a question of the morals as well as of the 
manners of expression. Mr. Russell says, "A 
beautiful woman is on her lowest plane in a tight- 
fitting dress; an ugly woman on her highest in 
drapery. 

Further, "a woman may not lace to the ex- 
tent of lapping her ribs together, but most dresses 
are fitted to the smallest breath instead of the 
largest. Revealed form is always vulgar, espe- 
cially when distorted and robbed of its power to 
move in harmonious expression with the rest of 
the body; and tight lacing, even without speak- 
ing of it from a physiological standpoint in its 
relation to health, makes the body no longer a 
harmony of line in itself, robs it of proper rela- 



72 A DELSAKTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

tion to dress, which should radiate from its points 
of support, and completely kills it as an agent of 
expression by giving- no freedom or range of mo- 
tion. 

"Beautiful sentiments and manners can only 
be expressed by high harmonies in motion. Low, 
vulgar, every-day, commonplace things express 
themselves in harsh, quick, broken angles and 
lines. Modern dress is fast killing out our capa- 
bility of the expression of feeling; soon the feeling 
Will go too. 

"The German-soldier man and Noah's-ark wo- 
man seem to be our ideals." 

****** 

In answer to our correspondent of last month, 
we can emphatically recommend the Delsartean 
exercises for schools. We have seen the very 
greatest benefits ensue from their use, their great- 
est drawback being such rapid improvement in 
shape and increase in girth of chest as to make 
new clothes a necessity. Compared with Ling's 
exercises, we think they are more philosophic, 
more fundamental, and more interesting. A 
competent and wise instructor is a sine qua non. 
If badly taught, like every other good thing they 
may do harm. 



Corset- Wearing.— Professor V. A. Manassier, a distinguished scientist 
of St. Petersburg, has been investigating corsets. The professor is not 
the first man by any means who has turned his attention to this momen- 
tous subject, but he goes about the business in such a cold-blooded, crit- 
ical manner as to deserve attention. In the first place, the professor 



THE NATURAL HUMAN FIGURE. 73 



finds that the corset- wearer has a decreased vital capacity of lung ; that 
while expiration is not impeded, inspiration is deficient. In other words, 
the ordinary corset- wearer receives into the lungs one- third less air than 
the person whose thorax is untrammelled by the contrivance. He also 
finds that the respirations are shortened and the breathing is rapid. 
While the non-corset-wearer is breathing five times the corset-wearer 
will breathe seven times. A hurried respiration means a more rapid 
pulse, and hence, heart troubles. The learned professor also declares 
that the corset-wearer suffers from chronic oxygen starvation ; that 
there circulates through the tissues of the unfortunate individual who 
squeezes the ribs together a large amount of carbonic dioxide— much 
to the detriment of the health. He also asserts that the arterial tension 
is chronically low. This means that the person is apt to be in an anaemic, 
or bloodless, condition. He further states that the lungs of such a person 
are inviting abodes for Koch's bacillus. In fact, that when a Koch's 
bacillus sees a person wearing a corset, it, so to speak, laughs for joy, 
and straightway makes for the home so admirably fitted for its use. He 
says that out of twenty-eight persons wearing tight corsets who were 
examined, he found that six presented morbid processes in the apices of 
their lungs. 

Who Invented Smiling ?— By some accounts this facial spasm is itself 
an innovation, and was a trick of fashion set so little time ago as at the 
beginning of the last century ; and the mode, said to have originated at 
"Vienna, coming to Paris, was there, it is reported, called La Vien noise, 
and from that centre, so rapid is the spread of absurdity, extended to 
the ends uf Europe. And surely this unmirthf ul smile that we all employ, 
this grin that is only of the lips, is an absurd thing; neither natural nor 
decorous ; for why should I smile inanely and endeavor to seem glad 
when I meet an acquaintance ? Why should he return this conventional 
salutation with a corresponding contraction of the muscles of his face 
when he sees me ? How is he to know that I am not weighed down by 
some secret sorrow which my smile of greeting but thinly conceals ? 
How am I to be sure that my own smile should not rather be a groan of 
sympathy or a silent tear ? W T e smile in concert, hypocrites that we are, 
while perhaps our very hearts are torn asunder ! How much wiser is 
the courteous gravity of the Portuguese peasant, or the stern salutation 
of the Oriental, who has not yet caught this European trick of the lips, 
and who meets and greets his acquaintance with the grave sympathy of 
one wayfarer meeting another on this rugged, tortuous path of life that 
has its ending only in the mysterious grave \—Osivald Crawfurd. 



74 A DELSAETEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



" Begin with children at five years to teach 
them to breathe well, speak well, walk well. 

" Ungraceful movements are a violation of the 
law of economy. 

" Repression in American manners is a Puritan 
idea ; it ends in ugliness of motion. 

" Once, to be ladylike was to be negative and still. 

" Quiet persons move in angles when they do 
move. 

" Movements which show effort do not express 
dignity and grace. 

" Flexibility gives grace.' 1 ''— Henrietta Russell. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A WOMAN ON WALKING. 

The faulty carriage of belles of Broadway and Fifth Ave- 
nue—Walking up-stairs — A society girYs lament — 
Walking naturally not necessarily walking beauti- 
fully — The anxiety and strain of the shopper — 
Nervousness versus dignity — Some suggestions as to 
the cure of certain natural defects. 

This expression fell upon my ear the other day : 
" Oh, dear! I wish I could walk like some people 
that I see ! Sometimes, on the street, I imagine 
I am walking* with great dignity and elegance, 
but when I catch a sight of myself in the big win- 
dows I am simply a fright. I look stiff, strained, 
and awkward. I don't know what is the mat- 
ter." This, from the lips of a well-made, nice- 
looking, ambitious American society girl, led to a 
chat upon this topic with Mrs. Edmund Russell, 
the Delsartean representative in New York, in 



A WOMAN ON WALKING. 75 

the course of which many interesting- facts and 
theories were developed. 

"In the first place, walking" naturally," said 
Mrs. Russell, " does not mean walking beauti- 
fully, save in one case in ten, when the whole phy- 
sical instrument is naturally in tune, one chord 
with the other, and harmony or grace results. 
In the other nine cases, one portion of the body 
keyed too high and another too low produces the 
physical discord which on sight is termed ' awk- 
wardness/ 

" The proportionate tension or laxity of the mus- 
cles of the body makes its music, or expression. 

" One person, in walking, allows the knees to 
bend excessively and continuously, producing' 
thereby a general tumble-down flabbiness of the 
whole personal expression commonly believed to 
emanate from the character, and termed l weak- 
kneed.' In such case the upper portion of the 
body is disproportionately stiffened to express 
the courage — the muscles have to do what the 
knees confess they have not. 

" One of the most common faults in woman's 
walk is undue tension or stiffening of the ankle 
muscles, producing a straight up-and-down 
'churn-staff motion' of the feet and the con- 
sequent ' bobb3 T / cramped walk so observable on 
Fifth Avenue Sunday mornings, among a saintly 
and stiff-ankled generation. 

" FolloAving this is a ' thudding down ' with all 



76 A DELSAKTEAJSr SCEAP-BOOK. 

one's force upon the heel, producing- a jar through 
the nervous system only equalled by the exceed- 
ing homeliness of the locomotion. This is often 
done with an idea of walking straight, to assist 
which the stomach is pitched forward, a hollow 
is produced in the back, and the lady, from the 
novelty of her appearance— not its beauty — is 
dubbed ( very stylish ' by — her milliners. 

" The undue roll of the hips may be seen five 
times an hour daily on any popular promenade in 
New York. 

" This consists of an alternate pushing forward 
of each hip, after the position a man might adopt 
in offering the hip-pocket of his trousers to a tailor 
to have a stitch set in it. It is adopted by those 
wishing* to appear particularly voluptuous and 
fascinating. It is carried to a great extent by 
untrained actresses. 

" Excessive relaxation of the neck, pitching the 
head forward with undue strain of the lower 
body, is a common expression with time-worn or 
desk-wrecked men. 

"All these unconscious or premeditated awk- 
wardnesses, still further accented by peculiar ten- 
sions for ' fad's ' sake (such as the present squar- 
ing of the shoulders, extension of the elbows, and 
the clutch of the pocket with both hands which 
is sold to each fair dame with her fur cape), are 
as many breaches of the harmony, dignity, and 
grace of womanly form to a connoisseur. 



A WOMAN ON WALKING. 77 

"It requires no connoisseur, however, to be 
horrified at the daily exhibitions of feminine 
clumsiness among- the hurried shoppers of Four- 
teenth Street, Sixth Avenue, and Twenty-third 
Street. 

"When belles and ladies of leisure, with 
thoughts centred on their attractiveness, fail in 
this, what can we expect from those poor lit- 
tle huddled, crunched-up, strained, care-battered 
creatures — upon whom the rack and thumbscrew 
of time and money are both pressing hard — who 
flood those fatal districts daily in the vain en- 
deavors to buy ten dollars* worth with five dol- 
lars, and to get home before five o'clock ? 

" See how they do huddle ! Shoulders up, heads 
away out, arms wildly clutching", eyes straining* 
and fairly starting" from their sockets in the men- 
tal struggle between pocket and window contents, 
and the physical fig-lit with long- distance and 
short time. What waste of motion, what awk- 
wardness ! They have not been taught the ' law r s 
of expense ' in muscle, any more than in time and 
money. They are wildly grabbing- in the dark, 
with a dead waste of physical and mental forces, 
and at thirty have to add chronic visits to physi- 
cians to the list of their daily drudgeries. 

"One feels tempted to call to them, 'Stop! 
stop ! ! All of you stand still a minute ! ! ! Let go ! 
Shake yourselves loose ! Relax your muscles and 
fetch back your wandering- thoughts, which are 



78 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

three or four blocks ahead of your bodies and are 
scattered in three or four different stores at once ! 
See those dents in your hands from clutchings ! 
Straighten out those criss-cross furrows on your 
foreheads; take that fierce, agonized look from 
your wan faces; smile once at nothing-; and either 
begin again fresh or go home and rest ! ' 

"Added to this are accidental pressures, such 
as rainy days, climbing up muddy stairs with a 
load of heavy skirts in one hand, three loose 
packages in another, an umbrella to be kept out 
of people's bodies, and fare to be taken out of un- 
handy pockets, while bells ring, the train is called, 
and the gates slam. 

" Talk about grace ! 

"This same nerve and muscle strain, to the 
total forgetfulness and disregard of personal ap- 
pearance (or expression), enters into the homes 
not only of the middle class, with family anxiety 
alone, but of the wealthy society dame, whose 
ambition makes a battle-field out of a flower- 
garden existence. 

" Rich ladies, beautifully dressed and in elegant 
rooms, may be seen entertaining with shoulders 
up to their ears, chests hollowed into furrows, 
contracted brows, spasmodic face motions, inces- 
sant lacing of the fingers, and nodding and hunch- 
ing of the head and shoulders." 

This is no overdrawn picture. You cannot 
make three calls this afternoon without coming 



A WOMAN ON WALKING. 79 

across the original, especially if you are an " im- 
portant person," of whom your hostess stands 
somewhat in awe. 

In this way many good women misrepresent 
themselves frightfully. They conceal possible 
nobility, courage, enthusiasm, womanliness, by a 
cloak of green, affected school-girl awkwardness. 
Their motions, instead of expressing the best that 
is in them, indicate but the little, the petty, the 
ungracious, the nervousness, which is all the re- 
sult of lack of thought or training and over- 
anxiety to enter the camp of the " Four Hundred." 

The word dignity comes from the word " dig- 
nus," meaning worthy — worth supposably cloth- 
ing itself with becoming muscular development 
and carriage. That this is but a theory is shown 
in the amount of very undignified and unimpres- 
sive expression that conceals vast hordes of 
worthy minds in our circle of acquaintance to- 
day. 

Stair-climbing is a feature of feminine locomo- 
tion as peculiar as it is important. 

"Show me," says Mrs. Russell, "a town of 
stairs, and I will prophesy thin, eye-circled, cross- 
looking women, and vice versa" Yet, strange 
to say, this disease, to the untrained, is our most 
potent gymnasium in teaching the art of walk- 
ing. The prophecy should be reversed. Trained 
stair-climbers should be the healthiest, as the 
most graceful of women. Baltimore with its steep 



80 A DELSARTEATT SCRAP-BOOK. 

hills (which are natural stairs) shows in its women 
(who are taught to mount them) the most grace- 
ful pedestrians in the country. New York shows 
a race of clumsy-walking, drawn -faced women. 

" In going up-stairs there should be no wad- 
dling from side to side — none whatever; no trudg- 
ing, as though the object were to push holes into 
the steps; no leaning forward and no apparent 
weariness. The body should remain erect, the 
step should be taken with the ball of the foot, 
and the movement to the next step be made with 
a springing motion — a caress of the structure, if 
you will, instead of a kick. This produces s grad- 
ual, graceful, poetic elevation, instead cf i cum- 
bersome hauling of the body upward, ar i places 
all the strain upon the strong muscles of the calf 
of the leg. 

" This slightly accented springing from step to 
step leads to the true system of pacing on level 
ground, hence the stairway is made the walkers' 
gymnasium, and its correct use is made a cure 
for many abuses. 

"You have to but observe the different styles 
of walking to be seen nightly on the various 
stages of our city to realize that ordinary climb- 
ing does not produce either satisfactory or similar 
results of expression." 

Some people need little or no suggestion in this 
regard. With some, a little thought and obser- 
vation will work marked improvement, while 



A WOMAN ON WALKING. 81 

others, in order to attain an}- sort of satisfactory 
symmetry — any power or beauty of personal ex- 
pression — must go into a regular course of train- 
ing- and development, and this physical prepara- 
tion, be it easy or difficult, swift or slow, tedious 
or delightful, must underlie success in any art. 

"A writer, a scientist, a man may be a cripple; 
a,n actor, a musician, a flirt, a belle, a society 
leader, a singer, or a swimmer must have perfect 
control of every key to the human instrument, 
which, first of all, must be in perfect tune." 

Fannie Edgar Thomas. 



Mrs. Russell Talks to a Company at Mrs. Wanamaker's.— This 
administration seems to have an ambition to lift society above a mere 
exchange of salutations, and introduces into it something of art and lit- 
erature. Mrs. Wanamaker yesterday afternoon gave the second of the 
unique assemblies in her music-room to a class of young ladies whom 
she had invited to hear Mrs. Henrietta Russell in a lecture lesson on the 
laws of expression as taught by Delsarte. Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Russell 
Harrison, and Mrs. Windom were present, as at the first of the series on 
Saturday. Mrs. Wanamaker seems to have got one step beyond the 
English fashion of " lending the house " to an artist, and sets an example 
to those who can afford to be patrons, by herself employing the artist to 
give a course of lectures and then inviting the class. The two first 
lessons have been on " Walking " and " Bowing. 11 

At the adjournment of the class Mrs. Russell congratulated Mrs. Har- 
rison on having discontinued hand-shaking at receptions. Mrs. Harrison 
said she would like to shake hands with everybody kind enough to wish 
to meet her, but it was simply a question of endurance ; it was a sort of 
physical violence which, continued during an evening, few could stand. 
Mrs. Russell declared that promiscuous hand-shaking with strangers was 
inartistic, inexpressive, and preposterous— only one remove from the 
miscellaneous kissing among school-girls. Bowing, she said, was much 
more respectful, because less familiar. In England they have a custom 
which America would do well to copy, which dictates that young eirls 
6hall not shake hands with gentlemen= Among the young ladies were 
the daughters of the Vice-President and the Misses Windom. 

Mrs. Russell woro a picturesquely-con structed gown of Havana brown 
cloth, which clung to her figure from top to toe like a jersey, and was 

6 



82 A DELSAKTEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 



made with a Greek free neck. The front was draped with brown velvet, 
spotted with gold like a leopard, and the long train of velvet was hung 
to the front with a golden cable. At the interesting talk given at Wil- 
lard's in the morning, Mrs. Ingalls, Mrs. Snider, Mrs. Burrows, Mrs. 
Riggs, Mrs. Clarkson, Mrs. Webber, and a number of other well-known 
society ladies were present. 

William Blaikie and the Vassar Girls.— Mr. William Blaikie, the 
well-known writer and lecturer, who is an enthusiast on physical culture, 
has been visiting Vassar, and his comments are more pointed than gal- 
lant on the style in which the college girls run. " There are no women 
nowadays who can run, 1 '' he said to them when they showed him the 
track laid down in the gymnasium. "Yes, Mr. Blaikie, we can! 1 ' 
"Off with you, then, 11 and the girls were speeding around the course, 
ambitious to convince him. After two laps, he says, they were blowing 
like porpoises ; there wasn^ one who had any wind, and they all came 
down with a thud on their heels, when everybody knows you can't run 
unless you get the spring from your toes. 

Words. — In our crazed brains words are visions, visions ecstatic, 
visions chimerical, are visions without models and without object, ideals 
rather than images, desires rather than reminiscences ; and how distant 
these ideals, how painful these desires ! 

There is no woman who gives us the radiant dream that lurks beneath 
the word Woman ; there is no wine that realizes the intoxication imag- 
ined by the word Wine ; there is no gold, pale gold or dusky gold, that 
gives out the tawny fulguration of the word Gold ; there is no perfume 
that our deceived nostrils find equal to the word Perfume ; no blue, no 
red that figures the tints with which our imaginations are colored ; all is 
too little for the word All ; and no nothingness is an empty enough 
vacuity as to be that arch-terrorist word, Nothing.— Entile Hennequin. 



ANOTHER WOMAN ON WALKING. 83 



"The dancing on the stage at the present 
moment might be described as ungraceful or dis- 
graceful ; the merely graceful has vanished.'" 



CHAPTER X. 

ANOTHER WOMAN ON WALKING. 

How one ought to walk in order to be graceful — How to 
gain strength and ease — Advantages in health and 
beauty to be derived from a proper carriage and 
gait — Exercises which develop the muscles all over 
the body, head, shoulders, chest, waist, knees, and 
feet, all concerned in the art of walking well — 
Methods of training each in turn. 

Grace of motion is a woman's supreme charm 
and the one least often exemplified. In Edward 
Bellamy's now fashionable "Looking- Backward," 
the magnificent health of the maidens of the mil- 
lennium is enthusiastically dwelt upon, and the 
reader is informed that it is in part the result of 
natural selection. This law, one would suppose, 
should be at work in our own time. The more 
lovely a woman is the larger her field of choice 
when she marries. She who enjoys the largest 
liberty selects, one may assume, the finest speci- 
men of manhood for her husband, and the world 
is peopled with beautiful children. It is true that 
according to this principle ugliness and awk- 
wardness ought long ago to have become extinct, 



84 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

which is by no means the case : witness the num- 
ber of handsomely-attired women on the avenues 
at the hour of the fashionable promenade who 
walk like automatic geese wound up for thirty 
minutes' waddle. Under the natural dispensa- 
tion the woman who was most graceful and beau- 
tiful would be likely to become the mother of fine 
daughters, because she would be a fine creature, 
a grandly-constructed animal, in whom grace of 
motion would be the expression of the highest 
physical perfection, her queenship over her kind 
proclaiming itself in step and carriage. But 
nowadays it is often the chic little rat of a thing, 
with big hollow eyes, no waist, and not a drop of 
wholesome blood in her body, who minces along 
in tight shoes with a half-limp to favor the foot 
that hurts the most, who has the widest liberty 
of matrimonial choice and peoples the world with 
physically-uneducated citizens. It is not real 
grace, the grace that one admires in marble or 
in Greek friezes of dancing maidens, that attracts 
most, for the simple reason, perhaps, that we are 
but now getting our eyes open to its possibilities. 
The art of walking should be taught to girls as 
carefully as the art of reading, for one is the basis 
of physical as the other is of mental education, 
and awkwardness is as directly the result of care- 
lessness, as bad spelling. Before learning to walk 
one must learn to stand, to poise, and to bend, 
and the basis of all these is learning to breathe. 



ANOTHER WOMAN ON WALKING. 85 

The first thing- to be acquired preparatory to all 
farther effort is the knack of lifting" the chest into 
its proper position by the action of the waist and 
intercostal muscles, and holding it as the promi- 
nent part of the body — a post of honor too often 
usurped by the inferior abdomen. The same mo- 
tion which throws out the chest should draw in 
the lower part of the trunk, hanging" it from the 
curve of the spine, instead of resting it clumsily 
in the pelvis like a great pudding in a basin. In 
the proper attitude for good breathing the hips 
turn slightly inward and the chin goes back but 
not up, the shoulders being left absolutely out of 
consideration. Throwing them back or attempt- 
ing forcibly to straighten them results in half a 
dozen evils more to be dreaded than round shoul- 
ders. Take care of the chest and the shoulders 
will take care of themselves. Now inflate the 
lungs fully, and when the chest is naturally, but 
without exaggerated force, expanded, step up in 
front of a door, letting both toes touch the wood- 
work. If at the same time the forehead and the 
chest meet the varnish, it is safe to conclude that 
you are taking for the nonce a good standing 
position. 

In the best standing attitude the poise seems 
to be a little forward of a straight line, a perpen- 
dicular from the chest falling, as above stated, 
between the toes; but that this is the absolutely 
erect position for the body is shown b} r the fact 



8b A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

that it is the only poise from which a ballet 
dancer can rise to the very points of her tiny toes 
and come down in the original position again 
without swaying backward out of line. In this 
position the head is poised as if to carry steadily 
a burden on the crown, and the weight of the 
body rests on the balls of the feet and not on the 
heels. Many teachers of physical culture will tell 
you that to stand correctly is easier than to do 
otherwise; but with the average person the ease 
is an acquired, not a natural one, and during the 
probation period a constant and conscientious 
watch must be kept over one's attitudes. Until 
practice has accustomed the body to the shifting 
of the centre of gravity forward, the novice used 
to standing on the heels will feel insecure, as if 
about to tumble forward; but this accords well 
enough with the dicta of the physiologists who 
are accustomed to define a walk as a succession 
of constantly-interrupted falls. Quite as bad as 
the sense of unsafety is the stiffness, the awk- 
wardness and self -consciousness, the feeling as if 
being constantly on dress parade which comes of 
the first efforts to change one's standing position. 
How soon these disagreeable sensations will wear 
off depends somewhat on the individual and more 
on the persistency with which she practises cor- 
rect standing. Some women, after a month of 
lifting the chest and holding the body erect in a 
straight line, will lose all thought of the process 



ANOTHER WOMAN ON WALKING. 87 

and come into their new kingdom of elasticity 
and beauty of carriage, while others may be a 
year, after fully grasping" the idea of graceful 
motion, in teaching their muscles to interpret it 
of their own accord and easily. Some of the finest 
examples of erect and elastic poise are found in 
English women of good position, accustomed all 
their lives to out-door exercise, and occasionally 
one of these may be studied to advantage in 
turning over Du Maurier's pictures. 

For a daily exercise to be practised night and 
morning, take a good standing position and then 
inflate the lungs fully several times, forcibly ex- 
pelling the air. Having thus prepared the sys- 
tem for work, rise slowly as high as possible on 
the toes, holding the body a moment at the final 
position attained and then descend slowly and 
lightly and rise again. This exercise will quickly 
fatigue the ankle, but it is unequalled for giving 
elasticity and grace to the instep. Constant prac- 
tice will strengthen the muscles, and one should 
soon be able to stand for some length of time in 
the raised position, to rise first on one foot and 
then on the other separately, and to walk good 
distances to and fro in one's chamber poised on 
the toes. This presupposes some foot-covering 
which allows comfortable play to the instep and 
the foot muscles, and all the exercises to be given 
presupposes freedom from corsets. Otherwise 
they are either impossible or harmful. 



88 A BELSARTEA^T SCRAP-BOOK. 

For the ankle proper, take the same position 
and sway slowly hack and forward from the 
ankles without "bending- the knees. Do not ex- 
pect to swing* through any great arc of motion, 
for the ankles will not permit it. This motion is 
rather harder than the first to do properly, but 
it gives security and certainty of carriage. Prac- 
tise it on both feet, then with each foot sepa- 
rately, holding up the other by bending the 
knee. 

Now, straightening the body again, lift both 
arms as high as possible above the head, keep 
the legs firmly poised without bending the knees, 
and sway the upper part of the body forward, 
bending only at the waist, carrying* the hands and 
arms toward the floor. This will give strength 
to the trunk muscles, the tissues which anato- 
mists say women allow to degenerate until they 
almost lose them. This exercise is fatiguing, but 
should be practised in moderation until one is 
able to touch the carpet with one's fingers, or even 
to lay the palms of the hands flat on the floor. 
A good deal of the virtue of it consists in doing" 
it very steadily and slowly. To obtain full re- 
sults, bend also to the right side and then to the 
left, also diagonally forward in both directions. 
To complete the training- of the waist muscles, 
roll the body around slowly in a circle on the 
hips, bending at the waist, and describing day by 
day a curve of greater diameter as more flexibil- 



ANOTHER WOMAN OX WALKING. 89 

ity, particularly in describing' the backward mo- 
tions, is obtained. 

A walking- exercise which does much to develop 
the leg- muscles and to give grace of poise con- 
sists in standing- on one foot and extending the 
other leg at as nearly a right angle as possible. 
In this position swing it slowly in a circle, back- 
ward and forward, and see if the effort to main- 
tain the balance does not prove its efficacy. This 
movement forms a part of the training of ballet 
dancers. 

As a knee exercise throw the right foot well in 
advance of the left and bend the knee as much as 
possible; then straighten that leg with an elastic 
spring*, transferring* the weight of the bod}', which 
has been borne by it, to the left leg, which is ad- 
vanced in its turn and bent similarly. Cross the 
floor practising the knees in this way. Another 
ballet girl's exercise, which is also good for the 
knees, is to stand on one foot, holding the other 
up at right angles to the knee, with the toes 
pointing downward, and kick with vicious energy. 

An excellent walking exercise is to decompose 
the walking movements, taking each element 
separately by standing on the left foot, holding 
the right leg* bent at the knee, and then swaying* 
forward on the left leg* until you feel that you are 
actually falling*, when the right foot is brought 
down in a supporting position and the left one 
lifted for the same round of motions. The calves 



90 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

can be strengthened by giving* an especial spring 
to the walk, coming down well forward on the 
foot, almost on the toes. 



Mrs. Russell on Walking.— Let us learn to obey the laws of our own 
body. We have a system of levers to do the work, and they act precisely 
as all levers do. One leg is a lever to pry the body over the other leg, 
and the latter becomes a pendulum and swings back by force of gravity 
to its place. When you walk three miles and feel as if you could walk 
ten, you are walking that way. When you are tired out and feel weary, 
you are taking irregular steps and walking on your heels. A great de- 
fect is trying to step too far. It is bad walking when you lift your foot 
and put it down. If the bottom of the foot is seen, it should be from the 
back. Raise yourself on both toes at the same time. 

What is wanting is elasticity. We have many joints to do the work. 
If you leave out the ankle you give it to the knee. If you walk on 
the heel you get a bump and a jar, and the waste of force of thirty per 
cent in a day. 

People say, turn your toes out! What for ? If they were to be that 
way, they would have been made that way. Gilbert, the English 
sculptor, says that the anatomy of the foot shows conclusively that it 
never was intended that the toes should be turned out. 

Grace is where ah muscles take part ; where each has its work to do 
and does it. 

It is a sin now, Mrs. Russell said, to be awkward. Grace is com- 
plex, but simple, when the science is known. There is science in 
gesture as there is science in music. 

Few walk gracefully. Swinging of the arms in walking, which is 
universal, is absolutely unnecessary ; it is purely a waste of strength. 
Marching never makes beautiful walkers, and should not be taught in 
our schools. 

Hurrying is a great cause of awkwardness.— Camden Post. 



A PRIVATE LESSOR. 91 

to It is repose, and not absence of expression, 
that is to be aimed at. 11 — Sir Charles Bell. 

"Social pre-eminence is not with us an inheri- 
tance, but an achievement. 1 ' — Nym Crinkle. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A PRIVATE LESSOR. 

Being resthetlcally carved — Nell Nelson takes a lesson 
and tells her interesting experience in the New York 
World — Vanity completly crushed— The Delsar- 
tean's dissecting-room— Breathing and walking- 
Falling as a pastime. 

Mr. Edmund Russell, teacher of expression, 
interior decoration, and art, gave me a private 
lesson in Delsarte. It took him eighty minutes 
to carve me up assthetically, and when he got 
through there wasn't any more swell to my van- 
ity than there is to a pin -pricked rubber balloon. 

The Delsartean received me in his Fifty-fifth 
Street drawing-room. He was dressed in a cop- 
per-colored suit of Irish linen plush, made with 
the regulation trousers and a tight-fitting round 
coat, ornamented with old Pompeiian belt of cop- 
per-mounted leather, jewelled with carnelians. 
At his throat a scarf of cream-tinted silk was tied 
in a large, loose bow-knot, and the silken wrist- 
bands were fastened with quaint copper orna- 
ments that once ornamented the sword-hilt of 



92 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

some ante-Delsartean hero. His feet were dressed 
in maroon leather Persian sandals embellished 
with silver embroidery, and on his left thumb 
were two large copper rings of historic value and 
unmistakable weight, that looked as though they 
might have been dug out of the ruins of Carthage. 
I told Mr. Russell that I had neither the time 
nor the money to give to a course of Delsarte, 
that I was out of harmony with myself because 
of my crudities and obliquities, and that if he 
could give me enough of the philosophy of taste 
in one lesson to enable me to get into aesthetic 
plumb I would be pleased. 

" Ye-s," was the reply in two syllables, a glow- 
ing enthusiastic light filling his fine gray eyes. 
And then, lowering his full musical voice to a 
mellifluent tone, he asked : 

"Can you bear brutal candor?" 

"Brutal candor?" 

" Yes. I will have to be brutally candid with 
you to point out your defects in a single lesson. 
I will have to play surgeon and use the knife. I 
warn you it will hurt and your vanity will make 
you bleed. But it will benefit you." 

The last sentence gave me courage and I told 
him I was ready for the knife, but I did not want 
the theory. 

" I could not give it to you in ten lessons if you 
did. Well!" And then this American disciple 
of the new dispensation arose, struck a didactic 



A PKIVATE LESSON. 93 

attitude, and took in the points of his slab-sided, 
hollow-chested, self-conscious pupil. 

" Some persons are deformed by nervous trou- 
ble and some by bad training," he began slowly, 
" and you belong* to the latter class. You have 
taken your ideal from the military school, and 
as a result you are stiff, set, rig-id, angular, and 
inflexible. Nature intended you for a graceful 
woman, but you have been schooled into hard 
lines and an attitude of constant repression. You 
trust others, but have your own personality under 
constant suspicion. Now, that won't do. You 
are not doing yourself justice. Now, please, let 
go of your military idol. Set it aside. Let it 
drop. Have you relinquished ?" 

" I think so." 

"Very well. Now drop your shoulders. Let 
them down more! That's it. There is no beauty 
in a square back; too high shoulders are a defor- 
mity. Raise your chest as high as you can; 
bring it up and round it out by deep breathing. 
Let your shoulders drop, I said — put them clown, 
let them go, don't think any thing about them! 
Just remember that if your chest is up your 
shoulders will be in proper position. Close your 
mouth — not so tight; yes, just to have your lips 
meet." 

This was a task, as I am short on upper lip, al- 
though amply supplied with tongue. 

"Breathe deeper; not with your shoulders! 



94 A DELSARTEA^ SCRAP-BOOK. 

Keep them still. Use your nostrils, chest, and 
diaphragm. Now, then, fill your lungs; be quiet 
about it; take deep, full breaths till your lungs 
are fully expanded and then exhale slowly. Take 
that sort of a lung bath in the open air two hours 
a day, and you will have a correct method of 
breathing, a good chest, stronger organs of respi- 
ration, a better tone qualit3 r and you will be less 
liable to colds and throat trouble. If you can't 
go out-of-doors, throw open a window for fresh 
air and go through the exercise twenty or thirty 
times and continue the practice until deep breath- 
ing becomes habitual. 

" You should eat more at meals," was the next 
observation. 

"Why?" 

" So you would not have to bite your lips." 

This was the beginning of the brutal candor. 

"Are you aware that you talk very badly ? " 

"Perfectly." 

" Shall I tell you what is the trouble ? " 

" If you please." 

"Your collar is too tight. You are in a state 
of semi-strangulation all the time. The vocal 
life is choked out of your words. 

" Why do you wear such a high collar ? It is 
not becoming to you. It destroys the connection 
between your head and body." 

I told him that my neck was not like Annie 
Laurie's, and that I paid the coming Queen of 



A PEIVATE LESSON". 95 

England the compliment of appropriating her 
* chokers." 

Mr. Russell advised me to have my dresses 
fashioned without a collar, and to embellish my 
scrawny throat and bony chest with a necklace 
or jewelled band of ribbon sufficiently barbaric 
to be pertinent for common use. When I hinted 
at the probable expense of barbaric ornaments, he 
suggested a thick ruching sufficiently high to 
throw charitable shadows into yawning concavi- 
ties without engulfing the column that joins the 
regions of the heart and soul. 

te You sit badly. From your chin down there 
is no life in your body. If you were beheaded 
your personality would not lose anything. All 
your animation is in your face, all the expression 
comes from 3 T our head. You talk with your 
mouth and e} 7 es and gesticulate with yo ur head. 
The rest of your body is dead as far as expres- 
sion or emphasis is concerned. You want control 
at the centre and freedom at the extremities. 
Let yourself loose, can't you ? Shake off the re- 
straint, the conscious forces that are holding you. 
Unbend yourself. You are as irresponsive as a 
dressmaker's dummy." 

This delicate compliment had the desired effect. 
I had a well-I-never feeling, and w r as about to get 
away when my tutor threw up the hand with 
the thumb rings and said : 

"That's much better. Won't you please let 



96 A DELSAKTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

your hands down and unclasp your arms ? You 
have the habit to which your sex is addicted. Nine 
out of every dozen women sit with hands folded 
and resting" at the belt, the stomach leading, mak- 
ing a sort of mantel-shelf for them. Drop your 
arms, unfasten your hands, and use them to ex- 
press yourself. Why do you wear such tight 
gloves ? " 

" To make my hands look small." 

"But they doirt look small; they look de- 
formed. Besides, you can't use them. Your 
lingers have no play and you can't make a grace- 
ful movement with them to save your life. It is 
the same way with your feet. Your shoes are 
altogether too tight. They do not fit you." 

I protested that they were not tight in the 
least. 

" Then balance yourself on the toes of your left 
foot for two minutes." 

I tried, but failed. 

"You understand now my meaning. Your 
feet are a support to you, but nothing more. You 
have no freedom. Your shoes and gloves should 
afford as much flexibility and play as a mitten." 

And Mr. Russell raised one of his Persian-slip- 
pered feet. 

" "What you want is a course of falling- to take 
the stiffness out of your joints, but as you are 
now dressed you would break your neck or your 
back if you did this," and down on the floor went 



A PRIVATE LESSON. 97 

my aesthetic athletic tutor in a heap as lifeless 
as any Juliet on the stage. He fell fainting-, fell 
swooning", fell in despair, fell in a fire and a crowd, 
and fell off every chair in the room alternately. 
Then he rose, straightened his bang and his belt, 
and told me to practise that at home, showing 
me the science of the fall. 

Mr. Russell told me among other pleasant 
things that I had " no grace," that I was " fid- 
getty." " You have no repose whatever. What 
you mistake for repose is rigidity. And it is all 
due to your repression of self. You are not ex- 
actly awkward, but you are not easy. Now won't 
you please be seated ? " 

I slowly lowered myself into a corner-chair, 
threw my head back, brought my chest up, my 
elbows in, put my hands in my lap, turned my 
toes out, and looked up for an approving smile. 
There was a smile, with this encomium: "You 
are just about as wooden as it is possible for you 
to be. If you kept your eyes still and I saw you 
in a shop-window I should take you for a lay 
figure. The tension of your body is perfectly 
painful. In the name of grace unloosen yourself. 
If Bernhardt comes to town I want }~ou to 
go and see her. It will be worth the price of 
admission to you just to see the ease and free- 
dom with which she fills a chair. Her great 
charm is the length of her poses. She is all lines. 
You are all angles. She throws herself into a 
7 



98 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

chair and her extremities remain just where they 
fall. You go down jack-knife fashion. You are 
a succession of right angles. If you will take the 
trouble to study nature you will find that there 
are no angles in her work. The human body is 
one series of curves that melt into one another, 
producing a grand harmony of grace and beauty. 
Now, won't you throw yourself into this chair, 
please ? Not violently. Just relax your muscu- 
lar system. Go down as if you were tired. Well, 
that will do for a beginning. I wish you would 
practise that at your leisure. 

"This exercise you must always practise. It 
is called decomposing," and Mr. Russell began to 
shake out first his fingers, then his hands, and 
then his arms. " It will limber your joints and 
give you the flexibility you need so much. 

"Your dress," scanning with critical attention 
the details of a very scant and simple brown 
dress that had done duty through a second sum- 
mer, "is genteel in color and quiet in pattern, but 
the style does not suit you. The effect is spotty. 
You have a discordant white patch in your hat, 
another white dab at your throat, and a white 
handkerchief there in your belt, all of which de- 
stroy the harmony. Why do you wear that 
belt?" 

I didn't want to tell him that it was a make- 
shift to cover a bad place in my waist, so I 
waived the question. 



A PRIVATE LESSON. 99 

"You should never wear a belt. You are too 
short. It chops you off — bisects you, as it were, 
and makes angles at your hips and arms. You 
should have some long lines, some folded effects 
of drapery." 

After this playful tirade he allowed me to take 
a position on the carpet with my chest vaulted 
and my body so poised that if a plumb were let 
fall from my ear it would pass through my shoul- 
der, hip, and ankle, while he told me : " You belie 
yourself. Your body is all screwed up, the re- 
sult of bad clothes and bad health. You are, in 
brief, all out of tune, and when you feel a nice 
thought you don't know how to express it. You 
want limbering: your circulation wants quicken- 
ing; your body should quiver with life. Then 
instead of stiffness you will have grace, and in- 
stead of repression ease. You need control; you 
need to stop biting your lips and folding your 
hands and shying off. You think that by shak- 
ing your head you are vivacious, whereas in reality 
you are extravagant. The same emotion would, 
if distributed, make you charming. You need 
to be tuned first — then you can make music." 

Mr. Russell then told me to walk for him. I did 
so and elicited the first word of commendation. 

"You are not so heavy on your heels as I ex- 
pected, but there is nevertheless considerable of 
the waddle about your movement." 

This negative compliment dislocated me, and 



100 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

after I got in position again Mr. Russell placed a 
copy of the " Portuguese Sonnets " on my head 
and told me to walk across the room without 
displacing it. At the very first step Mrs. Brown- 
ing toppled over and jabbed me in the shoulder. 
Just then another private pupil was announced. 

The lesson cost me $10 in cash and several hun- 
dred dollars' worth of contentment, and in the 
hour's practice I did before the mirror I broke a 
chair and covered myself with large blue polka 
dots. 

Nell Nelson. 



The Mistresses of the White House.— Mrs. James A. Garfield never 
got into harmony with the ostentation, excitement, and vulgarity of public 
life. She is a woman of innate refinement, very domestic in her tastes, and 
the presumptions of the public grated on her. She could not reconcile her- 
self to the privileges assumed by agents representing photographic and 
advertising companies, business firms, newspapers, artists, and charita- 
ble, industrial, and social organizations, and when she sent down word 
that she did not wish to become an advertising medium, that she did not 
want to be photographed, painted, interviewed, or entertained, and that 
she begged to decline the testimonial of the club to which she was a 
stranger, she w r as most severely and cruelly assailed by message, letter, 
and paragraph. 

In all her public life she did not receive ten reporters. Scores applied 
to her for audience, and very often poverty was offered as a plea for the 
coveted interview. To these importunators she frequently sent a sealed 
envelope containing a bill and a "please excuse me from newspaper 
comment 11 written on the back of her visiting card. She used to say 
that she " felt like a baby elephant 1 ' every time she received with the 
President. While fully recognizing her obligations as the wife of the 
Chief Magistrate, she argued at home and among her friends that she 
was not a politician, was not in office, and in no way compelled to make 
an exhibition of herself, her home, and her children. There was no time 
between the election and burial of her husband when she would not have 
gladly paid the newspaper writers and artists to decline the work as- 
signed them. 

These very sentiments are entertained by Mrs. Harrison, who dreads 
publicity, suffers from demands made upon her by strangers, and 
shrinks from the ordeal of hand-shaking., committees, and delegates bear- 



A PRIVATE LESSON. 101 



ing testimonials, resolutions, or documents requiring her approval. 
Last winter, while a member of Mrs. Wanamaker's Delsarte class, she 
entered the drawing-room just as Mrs. Russell was showing the Wana- 
maker girls how to bow. There was the little bow of the head which 
would suffice for an employee in the " depot ; " there was the warmer 
salutation, with an advancing of the chest, for the formal caller ; there 
was a still more cordial salute, accompanied by a responsive movement 
of the head and torso, and finally the low, grand, sweeping bow from the 
head to the ankles, expressive of great respect, such as the queen is ac- 
customed to receive. 

Mrs. Harrison listened with undivided attention, and when the lesson 
was ended asked to be presented to Mrs. Russell, and during the conver- 
sation that ensued talked very freely to the New York aesthete. She re- 
ferred to the G. A. R. reception, when she carried a fan and bouquet, so 
as to have ample excuse for not shaking hands, and to which innova- 
tion the Logan division took such violent offence. 

" I was sorry,''' Mrs. Harrison said. "I did not mean to show an indis- 
position to kindness or courtesy, but it was a physical impossibility for 
me to extend my hand. Had I been permitted to shake hands it would 
have been different, but to have others do it was more than my strength 
was equal to." 

This aversion of the First Lady to cross hands with the grasping multi- 
tude will be the means of amending the etiquette of the reception and 
drawing rooms of Washington, if not the United States. 

During her residence in the White House Mrs. Cleveland stood up in all 
the beauty of her young womanhood and bravely shook hands with the 
mighty public until she had to take her rings and gloves off. until her fin- 
gers were swollen, her arm was lame, and her hand was like a puff-ball. 
After every reception her maid had a solution ready to bathe her dislo- 
cated members, and it was often necessary to rip her sleeve up in order 
to get it off. 

Mrs. General Grant has not one adverse criticism to pass on the great 
unwashed. She admits that she cried like a baby the day she left the 
White House. A special train carried the general's party to New York, 
but, she says, " I watered the journey with my tears. The general stood 
between me and any annoyances that might have occurred, but I was 
very happy. My life was eight years of bliss and one round of pleasure." 
—New York World. 



102 A DELSAETEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



" A sign in the rooms of a hotel reads as fol- 
lows : ' Indian clubs and dumb-bells will not be 
permitted in any of these rooms. Guests in need 
of exercise can go down to the kitchen and pound 
a steak.'' ?' 



CHAPTER XII. 

FOR COMFORT IN DRESS. 

Some ideas on men's clothes — The stupidity of modern 
fashions — The effect of fits — Linen, plush, and Orien- 
tal slippers — Some novel ornaments — A subtle com- 
pliment. 

" Man is the only animal that doesn't practise 
Delsartean gymnastics/' is the way Mr. Edmund 
Russell sums up the iniquity of bad taste and the 
sins against health and expressiveness in pose 
and motion for which the tyranny of the fashion- 
plate is responsible. 

Mr. Russell is an American who went abroad 
to study art and painting. His attention was 
turned to the application of the principles of art 
to dress, household decoration, and other ends 
sometimes considered utilitarian. From studying 1 
them he began to teach them, and for three years 
in the most aristocratic circles in London, and 
even in the classical shades of Cambridge Uni- 



FOE COMFORT IN DRESS. 103 

versity, the novelty and originality of his ideas 
made his lectures the popular thing. 

Mr. Russell does not profess to be a reformer. 
He simply teaches people the principles of art, 
and then they may apply them or not, just as 
they please. 

In his room at the Palmer House last evening 
he chatted delightfully to a Morning Neivs re- 
porter of expression in dress, how it could he ob- 
tained, and how fashion absolutely destroyed it 
and at the same time naturalness in pose and 
even health. 

" Men's clothes," he said, " are a rank stupidity. 
They don't fit. They aren't graceful. They de- 
stroy health and all individual expression. 
Tailors and others try to devise variety, but they 
only succeed in changing a button or two in the 
style. And as for color, they can't get away from 
sombre, funereal, unnatural black. Why ! when 
the negroes were first brought to this country 
the hardest thing to get them to do was to put 
on black clothes. 

" Your tailor makes your coat tight across the 
chest and tells you it is a good fit. But it is just 
too tight to admit of the fullest inspiration. The 
result is the chest is compressed down upon the 
abdomen. What is the result in the expression 
of the ordinary attitudes ? They become common- 
place, vulgar. One of the most important things 
in expression is that the chest should lead the 



104 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

other portions of the body. All the best Greek 
and Egyptian statues present the human form 
standing- with the chest on a vertical line with 
the toe. But with each succeeding coat made 
tighter than the other to fit the receding chest 
this pose is lost. Instead of the weight of the 
body being supported on the arch of the foot, the 
stomach protrudes, throwing the weight on the 
heel, and there we stand. 

"Now, all these positions and gestures mean 
something. Delsarte didn't invent a system of 
gestures and poses to express certain feelings or 
emotions. He studied what position and gestures 
mean. He studied naturalness. But how can 
one be natural if in addition to such a coat he 
puts on the ordinary shoe, pinching the foot out 
of shape, and with an inflexible sole destroying 
mobility in the foot ? Each step, instead of being 
of a springy, graceful movement of the whole 
body, becomes a succession of plunk, plunk, plunks 
on the floor. 

"On the street I dress very much as other 
people do. But when in my own house I think I 
may please myself in the matter of dress. These 
shoes," and Mr. Russell pointed to his feet, which 
were incased in a pair of Indian slippers hand- 
somely embroidered and with pointed ends turned 
up, " I wear because they are perfectly flexible. 
If I should wear the ordinary English shoe con- 
tinue uslv for a few davs I should notice the fact 



FOR COMFORT IX DRESS. 105 

in a stiffening of my whole body. The Persians 
have the best shoe in the world. Here is a pair 
of them. They are as flexible as stockings. When 
one goes out he slips another heavier pair over 
them, which are removed before again entering 
the house. 

" This jacket is a linen plush. I don't wear it 
as a model. It pleases me. It wouldn't please 
others, perhaps, nor wouldn't become everybody. 
I advocate not a style, but individual expression 
in dress. Now I want some ornament. But for 
a man ornament must be strong, virile. So I 
wear these, which are bronze Japanese sword- 
hilts," and Mr. Russell took off a belt of the same 
material as the jacket, which was threaded 
through holes in the hilts. "You see," he con- 
tinued, " there is strength of expression in this- 
ornamentation. 

" Our fashions have no respect for age. The 
straight, severe outlines of men's garments show 
every bend and deformity. How different is this; " 
and he put on an Indian street garment made of 
camel's hair with exquisite cashmere embroidery, 
that was presented to him by an Indian prince 
who was his pupil at Cambridge University. 

"Particularly notice that the front, instead of 
being cut straight, as English coats are made, 
is pointed. Now, when I sit down, instead of 
dropping to each side, it folds gracefully over 
the knees. Salvini, as Othello, wears a similar 



106 A DELSARTEA^ SCEAP-BOOK. 

garment, and you have noticed in his swinging* 
walk how the line of the front follows every 
motion of his body. And did you ever notice, too, 
how his motions are not simply of parts of his 
body, but of the whole of it ? 

"Speaking of animals, the elephant, ungainly 
as it looks, doesn't move -in jerks or awkwardly, 
but with a most complicated combination of mo- 
tion that is exceedingly graceful and dainty. I 
spoke of this once to one of my Indian pupils. 
He replied that it explained the lines of one of 
their oldest Sanskrit poets, who said that the 
highest compliment that could be paid to a wo- 
man was to say that she moves like an elephant 
or she moves like a swan. I told him the elephant 
comparison as a compliment was obsolete in this 
country, used only occasionally by husbands who 
I was afraid did not understand Sanskrit senti- 
ment." 



French Politeness.— The mayor of a French town had, in accordance 
with the recent regulations, to make out a passport for a rich and highly 
respectable lady of his acquaintance, who, in spite of a slight disfigure- 
ment, was very vain of her personal appearance. His native politeness 
prompted him to gloss over the defect, and, after a moment's reflection, 
he wrote among the items of personal description : ' ' Eyes dark, beautiful, 
tender, expressive, but one of them missing.' 11 

Falling- Down-Stairs. — There is something in it, even for the Phil- 
istine. An entire lecture with demonstrations could be devoted to " The 
Art of Falling Down-Stairs. " Mr. Russell thinks no more of falling 
down three or four nights of stairs than Col. John W. Hinton does of 
talking eighteen hours a day about the protective tariff. His muscular 
system is so admirably trained that falling down-stairs becomes an 
agreeable, graceful, and entirely harmless pastime. Thus even so prac- 



FOR COMFOET IN DEESS. 107 



tical and prosaic an institution as an accident insurance company may- 
find profit in the popular study of this comprehensive scheme. 

It is entirely true that Mr. Russell is engaged in a most laudable educa- 
tional work for which he is peculiarly fitted by his store of artistic 
knowledge, his clearness and readiness of speech, and his fine physical 
development. — Milwaukee Sentinel. — Editorial. 

The High Priest of Delsarte.— Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Russell, the 
high priest and priestess of Delsarte, have been giving a series of lectures 
upon art study and criticism, color and house decoration, dress, grace, 
gesture and expression in oratorj r , acting, painting, and sculpture. They 
have recently returned from England, where for three years they have 
been giving these lectures in private houses, art studios, and theatres. 
Many of these lectures were attended by Gladstone, Alma Tadema, 
Holman Hunt, Whistler, Owen Meredith, Robert Browning, and William 
Morris. Mr. Russell is a young man with a head and face which seem to 
have been stricken from some old Roman coin and set upon a pair of 
sturdy American shoulders. To see him in the picturesque garb he wears 
in-doors, one is moved to wish that all men could dress in that fashion for 
a part of the twenty-four hours. Mr. Russell holds that if a man have 
a love for the beautiful and artistic he should be permitted to give it full 
sway in his house dress. His coat is something like a shooting-jacket 
belted at the waist. Three great bronze Japanese sword-hilts, inlaid 
with gold, form the buckles of this belt. He wears Oriental slippers 
turned up at the toes and embroidered with gold ; upon his hand a mag- 
nificent turquoise given him by an Indian prince. When he rises and 
throws about him a superb cameFs-hair robe, the gift also of an Eastern 
friend, and, walking across the room, insists that aged men should wear 
such robes as these instead of an ugly black broadcloth Prince Albert 
coat, which reveals all the defects of age, you quite agree with him. Mr. 
Russell declares that the modern male dress has no respect for age and 
no regard for beauty. 

"I insist, " he says, "that man has quite as much right to the beauti- 
ful in dress as woman. Now don"t misunderstand me. When I say this, 
straightway one fancies that I mean we should return to the fopperies 
and fripperies of Charles II., the lace ruffles, silken coats, and powdered 
wigs. No, those details are too effeminate. Man should have strong, 
dramatic, barbaric things. What is more manly than furs ? or plush and 
velvet ? There is no such thing as th e artistic dress. I would not presume 
to lay down laws for individual dressing. Because this costume suits me, 
shall I say that other men must wear this only ? By no means ; let the 
artistic dress suit the individuality of the wearer ; let it combine freedom, 
grace, health, dignity of motion, comfort, peace, and rest ; let it take the 
complexion, age, and circumstances into consideration. Does the fash- 
ionable dress do this ? No; it sets itself up as a model to be followed by 
all. I do not believe in fashion. Art is looked upon only as a fad, some- 
thing to be taken up as a fancy, when in reahty it is civilization. We 
must wear clothes ; we must live in houses. What are clothes and 
houses but phases of art ? "Shall, then, our art be good or bad ? I hold 
that the highest art is the building of a home. Many homes are mere 
rubbish heaps, curiosity shops, museums, jetsam and flotsam which 



108 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



have floated with us down life's ocean. Go into some of the finest man- 
sions in this city. What do you see ? A collection of tawdry and com- 
monplace things— Sevres vases, gilded tables, crimson curtains, all dem- 
onstrating the ignorance of opulence. However, Fifth Avenue is not the 
test of art culture any more than it is the test of mental culture. A 
taste for art is growing everywhere in America— a gradual diffusion of 
art. People should study more the surroundings that shall harmonize in 
the individuals than strive to display a rich collection of china and pic- 
tures. I would be glad to see in every school in this country art classes 
which should teach students how to build and furnish a home. 11 

Mrs. Russell is a delicate little woman with great, blazing dark eyes 
and an aesthetic bang, like a halo around her fragile face. She has a 
sweet smile and is the perfection of languid grace. Her gown was of 
classically-draped crape shawls of ashes-of-rose hue. She wore a curi- 
ous necklace of Oriental workmanship and gray Suede slippers.— Edith 
Sessions Tupper. 

How to Wear Your Diamonds. — The woman with the long neck and 
long purse is in great luck this season, for necklaces are wonderful, 
elaborate, and exquisite affairs, concealing with their sparkling splendor 
any aggressiveness on the part of bony structures, any scantiness of 
muscular tissue. The Princess of Wales dog collar is here in all its glory. 
Sometimes it is a fluted ribbon of gold filigree with diamond petalled 
flowers set in its convolutions. Sometimes it is a crazy network of 
diamonds and rubies set close together in irregular rows, with ruby 
flowers blazing from the glittering background at unexpected intervals. 
It may be a simple collar of diamonds with a fringe of gold ensnaring 
diamonds in its meshes, or a single row of superb stones from which 
depends in front a festooning of fine gold chains incrusted with tiny 
diamonds, in the centre of which flashes a magnificent pendant. One 
very handsome necklace consists of a row of gold flowers with diamond 
hearts, from which falls a network of diamonds so delicate and brilliant 
as to seem like hoar-frost in the sunshine. 

Gold necklaces with no jewels have a fringe of gold pendants which 
encircles the neck, or a fall of swaying flowers in gold or enamel depend- 
ing from supple wire. The woman with the exceptional neck will doubt- 
less go to the other extreme and wear a slender gold chain, almost invisi- 
ble, from which falls a fringe of diamonds strung on strong invisible 
wires, and a blazing pendant. 

More rare and costly than all the others are the pierced diamonds and 
pearls strung alternately on a single striug. Diamonds arranged in this 
way must be cut in the rose style and alike on both sides. The great 
expense is in the drilling, and the stones thus drilled are less marketable 
than those undrilled. 

Chrysanthemum and hearts are the favorite design for pins and ear 
pendants. The diamond chrysanthemums, with their convoluted petals 
set outside and in with sparkling stones, are even more effective than the 
stars, particularly for the hair, while the enamelled chrysanthemums are 
beautiful in coloring and design.— New York Sun. 



TVOMAN IN BLACK. 109 



"The human face, if endowed -with any measure 
of intelligence, nobility, or charm, must rise 
superior and not be subservient to its raiment ; 
a variety of colors is not brilliancy, nor is be- 
dizenment distinction."— Hamilton Aide. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WOMAN IN BLACK. 

A popular fallacy — The traces of age— Street and house 
dressing — Colors for evening — How to wear jewels — 
Massive ornaments — Powder and rouge — The effect 
of "make-up." 

"It is a popular fallacy with every woman that 
she looks her best in "black. Does she ? Emphat- 
ically, no. Black makes the flesh look a little 
whiter by contrast, but it makes every shadow 
duller, it makes every line deeper. It ages a 
person more than anything else. The only peo- 
ple who look well in black are those who are fair, 
and plump with no lines, no cares in their faces. 
Black is inimical to correct taste; people wear 
black until they think of choosing nothing else." 

Bold words for a young man to speak before 
an audience of stylishly-costumed ladies in whose 
adornings black largely predominated. But never- 
theless such words spoke Edmund Russell. 

While he discouraged the wearing of black, 
Mr. Russell particularly dilated on the beauties 



110 A DELSAKTEA3" SCEAP-BOOK. 

of gray, describing- it as " combining- the negative 
quality of black and the purity of white." 

" Dress " being the subject of Mr. Russell's lec- 
ture, the subjects touched were innumerable. 
The colors of a dress were to be considered just 
the same as harmony in a picture. On the street 
a negative, conventional dress was imperative. 
In the house individual fancy might reign. It 
used to be thought that a blonde must wear blue, 
purple, or green. Worth was the first to robe a 
blonde in gold color, in harmony with the tints of 
her hair. That was a sure guide. If the hair be 
brown, all shades of brown would be becoming to 
the individual; if gray, nothing would look more 
impressive than a gray costume with a dash of 
pink. If the hair were black, the lady should 
wear gray trimmed with black, perhaps, and the 
effect would be superb. 

For evening wear there could be nothing pret- 
tier than colors relating to the flesh — soft, inde- 
scribable pink\' browns and drabs. Blue eyes 
could be intensified by wearing a blue dress. 
Beauty in color was exactly like music. The 
study should be to make a harmony, not a sharp 
contrast, such as wearing brilliant red, which 
made a woman, unless she were brilliant and 
scintillating, look chalky and insignificant. Like 
wearing magnificent brocades, one could see noth- 
ing but the gown. The personality of the woman 
was hidden. If ladies would but turn such gor- 



WOMAN IN BLACK. Ill 

geous stuffs inside out, where the colors of the big 
pattern mingled vaguely and delightfully, they 
would have prettier garments. 

Then Mr. Russell did not approve of satin; he 
stigmatized it as "vulgar." As for jewels, the 
solitaire diamond ornaments were severely criti- 
cised. They were mere " spots of light " with no 
relation whatever to the rest of the costume. 
Diamonds were difficult to wear except when very 
small, as settings for other gems. "Women had 
the fault of buying jewels as they did Christmas 
cards. Instead, they should make jewels a study, 
and should wear them to enrich the harmony of 
a costume. To some garnets are especially be- 
coming. Let such a one buy a beautiful collec- 
tion of garnets and wear them as her own partic- 
ular jewel. In fact, gems are only effective when 
worn in regal quantities. Mr. Russell was greatly 
in favor of reviving the old-fashioned jewelled 
girdle and stomacher; also the less expensive and 
more universally becoming jewels, such as the 
topaz, the moonstone, the opal, the turquoise. 

The conventional hat was lightly touched, the 
lecturer simply stating that hats shaping to the 
head were by far the more expressive. He re- 
versed the fashionable adage that it is legitimate 
to powder, but a crime to paint. A dash of rouge 
might sometimes be an improvement, but powder 
rendered faces expressionless by making them 
opaque and spoiling the delicate shadows. Dark- 



112 A DELSAETEA^ SCRAP-BOOK. 

ening the eyes and reddening" the lips gave pre- 
cisely the look that hardness and wickedness pro- 
duced. The hair, too, possessed a character all 
its own. Worn at the nape of the neck, it was 
domestic; lower, romantic; on a level with the 
head, classic; on top, dashing — stylish. 

Stout ladies, Mr. Russell insisted, should wear 
heavy materials and draperies .that concealed the 
lines of the figure. Small, slight persons might 
don thin goods with many fringes and objects of 
graceful disarrangement. 



Masculine Women.— The pernicious thirst in women for masculine 
attire has been the corruption of good form, and it is to-day followed 
by a loss of conventional social dignity. Because of this looseness men 
are careless in their treatment of women. They study their own com- 
fort, and not only go to dinner in their slippers, but make evening 
calls in a tennis suit. If it suits them to keep their hands in their pockets 
they do so, and seem to think that it is hardly worth while to assist 
a lady into a car or coach or step aside to let her pass in or out of a pub- 
lic doorway.— Nell Nelson. 

The Woman Who Knows How to Shop.— What a blessing to her family 
and the community at large is the clear-headed, sensible woman who 
knows just what she wants and buys accordingly, fights shy of the 
bargain counter and auction room ; does not consider anything cheap 
that she does not need, and scorns to struggle with a hurly-burly mob of 
people for the sake of securing an article for two cents less than the regu- 
lar price. To shop with discretion and follow the beacon-light of econ- 
omy is to avoid the shoals and sand-bars of extravagance. Those who do 
not need to count the cost of what they buy are in the minority, and 
hence this matter of shopping should be so cultivated that it will become 
an art. Indeed, it should be recognized as part of a girl's education to 
shop wisely and well. Even the most careful of mothers give this all- 
important matter but little thought. Music, art, and the languages are 
added to a substantial English education, with perhaps a few lessons in 
cookery thrown in ; but where is the teacher or parent to be found who 
thinks it necessary to so train a girl in the art of shopping that she will 
be brought to consider thrifty management not a bore, but a most 
womanly accomplishment that, once acquired, will bring with it a de- 
lightful feeling of self-reliance ? 



MORE ABOUT BLACK. 113 



Harmony.— Heonypeck : " Have you got a dye 
that will change the hair and beard to a delicate 
ecru ? " 

Druggist: "No, s-ir. Why, may I ask, do you 
wish to dye in that peculiar shade ? " 

Hennypeck : " Well, you see my wife has had the 
library decorated in that shade, and she thinks I 
don't harmonize with it. 11 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MORE ABOUT BLACK. 

"What it does to Mrs. Langtry and Mrs. Kendal — "Lace 
by the mile" — Diamonds — Girdles — Rings — Artistic 
dressing — Mme. Blavatsky — Marie Decca — The In- 
dian princes. 

Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, a petite wo- 
man, in her toilets carries oat the idea of that 
clever speech of hers, " One should buy lace by 
the mile, not by the yard." 

Mrs. Russell teaches the harmony of gowning" 
and its relations to complexion and physique. 
Certain white-skinned, dark-haired women look 
well in black, but it ages any woman who has 
passed thirty. It deepens shadows in the face 
and throws character lines into bolder relief. 
Certain lines come with time, and time forms 
character, but it is needless to advertise one's 
age by means of black gowning. 

Bernhardt, that queen of good dressers, realizes 



114 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

this, and spangles her crape with jet. Mrs. Lang- 
try looked her oldest in the death-agony of Lena 
Despard as she trailed some costly black stuffs 
over the stage. It is rarely that either of these 
actresses is seen in black. Mrs. Kendal looks well 
in a magnificent black gown as Susanne, but the 
bodice is low-cut and of velvet. Her jetted gown 
for Claire in the " Ironmaster," which the actress 
declares cost a lot of money, ages her quite ten 
years. 

Mrs. Russell's ideas regarding diamonds are 
that they age a woman and detract from the 
brilliancy of her best points — eyes and teeth. 
Why should one tip the ear with diamond fire 
that holds the gaze from its curves and coloring ? 
The pearl is of all gems the likeliest to soften the 
face, but every woman ought to study which 
jewels suit her tints and expression and make a 
collection of them. It is chic to have a special 
jewel, as Mrs. Langtry has the turquoise, or 
Agnes Huntington the sapphire. 

As to rings, Mrs. Russell thinks that many or 
none should be worn. An exquisite hand requires 
no jewels, but the charm of one less perfect in 
shape, if it be white, is enhanced by a blaze of 
gems. 

Mrs. Burnett's fancy runs to rings, but among 
her choicest ones may always be seen the cold 
gleam of a tiny moonstone, the gift of Mrs. Har- 
riet Beecher Stowe, and upon which Mrs. Burnett 



MORE ABOUT BLACK. 115 

imagines turned the tide of her fortunes, as great 
luck followed the gift. 

Sarah Bernhardt cares but little for jewels, 
except in clasps and girdles. The swaying grace, 
the tigress-like spring of this bundle of nerves 
and mistress of eccentricities was acquired from 
Delsarte. 

Most graceful women who face public audiences 
are without stays. Contrary to French custom 
Bernhardt does not wear them, neither does Mrs. 
Russell, who relinquished them for health, and 
continues without them for comfort and artistic 
effect. This charming exponent of Delsarte be- 
lieves the best effect in dress and motion to be 
obtained by wearing silken tights or flannel com- 
bination suit, with the silken or muslin petticoat 
cut princesse and fitting the figure from the neck 
down. The gown is of similar cut, with drapery 
according to taste or becomingness arranged 
upon it. 

A secret of artistic dressing is to match the 
hair nearly as possible for day and the eyes for 
evening wear, the idea being that if a woman 
have golden brown or the copper-colored locks of 
high fashion, let her produce an all-over effect by 
drapery and veiling and head-gear of the same 
shade. It is startling, but quite swell. 

One of the loveliest stage gowns in existence 
was designed by Mr. Edmund Russell for Marie 
Decca, as Filina. A grand train of cloth of silver 



116 A DELSARTEAN" SCRAP-BOOK. 

was given her by a German princess. It has sil- 
ver arabesques, with wreaths of silver lilies 
woven upon them. The front and loose, sweeping- 
sleeves are silver gauze, edged with lilies of silver, 
and the train comes from the right shoulder 
across the front and flows behind. 

It is a mistake to think that correct drapery 
and softly-flowing robes increase the apparent 
bulk of the figure. Mme. Blavatsky, the seeress 
of theosoplry, a woman of huge proportions, be- 
comes graceful and majestic in her simple flowing 
robe of black satin or of some Eastern stuff. 
Sal vini's artistic robes as Samson do not materi- 
ally increase his massive proportions. 

As has been aptly remarked, a stout woman 
looks her worst and shows each line of her bad 
figure in stays and close-fitting gowns. 

The Easterns, who understood the art of poetic 
dressing, wore flowing robes, designed with a view 
to comfort and graceful effect. An Oriental robe 
of earners hair, richly embroidered like an Indian 
shawl, is so designed that the fronts lap over one 
another like points. These swing awkwardly in 
standing, but w T hen seated they follow the curves 
of the figure. As the Easterns usually are seated, 
this design w r as quite correct. 

These Indian princes had decided views about 
English life and English women. When taken 
to parties they were shocked to see the ladies' 



MORE ABOUT BLACK. 117 

faces and shoulders uncovered, and the scandals 
of the British nobility horrified them. 

When Mr. Russell walked along* Regent Street 
with them, after one of their first Delsartean les- 
sons, they were impressed by the women looking* 
in the shop-windows. " That is the cause of so 
much divorce among 3 7 ou," one of them said. 
"It is the perpetual shopping of your women. 
Clothes bring discontent into your homes." 

These young Indian princes were most apt in 
catching all the grace of the Delsartean move- 
ments. They declared it to be like the native 
grace of the Nautch dancers. 

Delsartism is natural grace of motion and ex- 
pression. It is tuning the instrument. Nature 
gives grace to her creations and the exponents 
of Delsarte teach us to give expression to that 
grace. Even the elephant is graceful despite its 
bulk. Its trunk is ever in swaying motion and 
its tread is light. 



Nocturnes in Dress Goods.— He has a pretty collection of those 
aesthetic goods, and has a knack of flinging them over himself in a pleas- 
ant artistic way that makes the folds hang like the draperies of Greek 
statues and ravish the eyes like the smiles of flirtatious girls. There is 
one piece like a streak of moonlight in vague unrest— a silky something 
of gree^'-grayej^-blue, that now seems one shade and now another and 
melts into waves of light and shade as its loose folds unrufHe themselves 
in different glints of sun. It is to color what a nocturne is to music ; an 
underlying strain of romantic sentiment runs through it not untouched 
with sadness, if one can comprehend ; it is a hybrid, as it were, a cross 
between Kathleen Mavourneen and Shuberfs Ave Maria in dry goods. 

Then there is another piece of this queer varying silk that ever seems 
as though a film of smoke overhung its surface— a burning, fiery, poppy 



118 A DELSARTEAN" SCRAP-BOOK. 



color that somehow melts away into greeny-gray under the very eye of 
the spectator, somewhat as a chameleon's hues will change, only more 
suggestive of the iridescent varying of color in mother-o'-pearl. Then 
there are rich gold textures, magnificent as the war march in " Les Hu- 
guenots,'" and eminently adapted for the attiring of stout women ; and 
there are also— but the art critic and the musical critic would have to 
work together for a week before they could work out the necessary 
similes to describe even a percentage of the materials in Mr. Russell's 
treasure-chest.— Milwaukee Sentinel. 

The Authoress op " Little Lord Fauntleroy."— They tell a story of 
Mr. Edmund Russell, who, with his wife, has been an object of idolatry 
to New York women inclined to physical culture of the aesthetic descrip- 
tion ever since the Delsarte craze set in. Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett 
came to Mr. Russell to ask his advice and assistance about a gown. 
The material she had chosen was a large-figured brocade, which did not 
promise results that were alluring. 

"Which is the right side of this fabric ?" asked Mr. Russell. 

" This, 1 " said the novelist, indicating it to him. 

"You are mistaken, madam," rejoined Mr. Russell, turning the sump- 
tuous material over on the other side, where the threads of silk and gold 
aud silver ran together and the large pattern became indistinct. ' ' This 
is like poetry, the other is prose. The artist does not recognize the ' right 
side' of the shop-keeper. 1 ' 

Mrs. Burnett then helplessly appealed to a matter-of-fact English 
dame for her opinion, who said : 

"Well, since Mr. Russell has explained it I perceive that the wrong side 
is the most beautiful, but I can't stand by in cold Christian blood and see 
you make it so."— New York Mail and Express. 

The Music Was Too Much.— A lettter just received from London says 
that the other day a thief broke into a mansion in Belgravia early in the 
morning and found himself in a music-rocm. Hearing footsteps ap- 
proaching he hid behind a screen. 

From 7 to 8 o'clock the eldest daughter had a lesson on the piano. 

From 8 to 9 o'clock the second daughter took a singing lesson. 

From 9 to 10 o'clock the eldest son had a violin lesson. 

From 10 to 11 o'clock the other son took a lesson on the flute. 

At 11 o'clock all the brothers and sisters assembled and studied an ear- 
splitting piece for piano, violin, flute, and voice. 

The thief staggered out from behind the screen at half-past 11, and 
falling at their feet cried out : 

" For heaven's sake have me took to the station, but cheese that 
bloomin' band ! " 



DEESS AND PEESONALITY. 119 



" Heretofore we have looked upon art as em- 
bodied in a beautiful picture or statue, to be set 
in a corner and admired by a privileged few. 
Now we begin to get glimpses of the great under- 
lying principles of art in everything as applied 
equally to dress, household decorations, literature, 
and social relations, and finally to character 
itself."— 5. M. hunt. 



CHAPTER XV. 

DRESS AND PERSONALITY. 

The gown and the wearer — What's wrong ? — Different 
types of women and what they should wear — Cleo- 
patras and tea-biscuits — Studies in color — Contrast 
or harmony — How to dress a stout woman. 

" I spend hundreds of dollars every year for my 
gowns," said a woman of society, in despair, " and 
half of them are failures. I am all enthusiasm 
and hope when I order them; when I get them 
on I see in a moment there's something- wrong- in 
color or cut. I can't say where the fault lies, but 
somehow they seem to be at odds with me. If 
onhy I knew how to put myself at my best ! If I 
could only be always certain of the results ! " She 
had struck the keynote of the difficulty — the 
gown and the wearer "at odds." 

Women have been perplexed and harassed with 
this question of dress since the world began; they 
have renewed the wrestling and striving with the 



120 A DELSAKTEA^ SCRAP-BOOK. 

return of each rolling season. The richness and 
variety of materials offered, the breadth of choice 
in style and fashion, being- but an increase of in- 
decision and additional embarrassment. 

In the past twenty-five years women's ways 
and methods have been given more consideration, 
and the impulse which demands the development 
of selfhood does not leave them out. The study 
of personal relation in the accessories of her life 
is with each woman, or should be, as close and 
individual as the peculiar form and phase of each 
subject presented to a physician. The woman 
who fails to make a personal analysis, to recog- 
nize and understand her " type/' will do random 
work all her life. Nature has impressed every 
human being with the stamp of a distinct person- 
ality. A contradiction of this in the relation of 
the " things " of life brings discord, want of bal- 
ance, failure. The woman who is disappointed 
in the effect of her gowns, her bonnets, her jewels, 
her house, her dinners, her friends, must realize 
that her perception is at fault; the adjustment of 
"relations" is bad. It was Jean Francois Millet 
who said " the beautiful is the suitable." And 
again, Edmund Russell defines art itself as " rela- 
tion : the right thing in the right place." 

The tint of the complexion, the color of the hair 
and e3 r es, are but a small part of the personnel. 
The whole physique, the build of the body, mind, 
manner, will, nerve — all must be taken into ac- 



DRESS A1S T D PERSONALITY. 121 

count in the general " make-up." The type is a 
fact fixed and inevitable; the wise woman accepts 
it, and thus sets herself to develop and emphasize 
its beauties, to overshadow and efface its defects. 
This thought will guide and control her choice in 
the purchase of material much more than fashion 
or cost. " How do you like \ii\y place ? Redeco- 
rated, you see — everything new; and this Egyp- 
tian gown ? — it was the most unique thing I could 
find in Paris." We paused and looked at the wo- 
man before us. Brown hair, gray-blue eyes, soft 
color, but the fresh tints of youth lost some years 
since; eager in thought, but a trifle timid in man- 
ner; the pond-lily type. If one must give the 
answer in truth, it must be this : " Why, my dear 
woman, what a mistake you have made ! The 
gown is handsome and brilliant; the belongings 
artistic and beautiful; perfect in relation to each 
other; in relation to you, nothing' could be 
worse. Do you imagine yourself Cleopatra, Medea, 
Phedre, or Theodora ? Wh} r this flame of color 
in hangings and rugs, these swords and chains, 
tiger-skins and leopard-spots ? And this gown, 
with its glow and glint of purple and gold, sug- 
gestive of passion and intensity ? These are all 
very fine, but you have contradicted yourself. 
You, who should be chief and dominant here in 
your own place, are overweighed, dwarfed, and 
diminished. Send here a woman dark, flashing, 
restless, defiant, and your picture is complete. A 



122 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

woman such as you needs repose in her surround- 
ings; the harmony and quietness of nature's un- 
dertints ; the low tones of blue, gray, and green ; 
and for accent the flush and gleam of sky-color 
at sunset." 

But wall-paper, hangings, and belongings fall 
into remote value when compared with the near 
and intimate association of a woman's dress. This 
is a part of herself, with silent but powerful ex- 
pression. Throw a length of material over a 
couch, or a chair, or on the floor, and it is noth- 
ing — a rag, a rug. Fashion it into a garment, 
and it has through the wearer life and influence. 
It lends to her; it borrows from her. 

Edmund Russell, in his lectures on dress, gives 
some good points on the construction of a. cos- 
tume in its three attributes — texture, color, and 
form. He urges a greater simplicity and higher 
dignity as necessary to the best expression of the 
w r earer. " For a woman of light physique," said 
he, " delicate coloring, vitality, energy, and move- 
ment, any draping, clinging material — soft wool 
or lustrous silk — has a peculiar adaptation. The 
hard, stiff forms of the old brocades, with their 
prosaic, stencil-like patterns and strong contrasts 
of colors, suit but few women. They destroy 
poetic suggestiveness. A large, stately woman 
may wear them; a small woman, light and wil- 
lowy, must not ; it is a sin against herself. Re- 
pose is an idea inseparable from size; let the 



DRESS AND PERSONALITY. 123 

« 

stout woman's dress create that feeling- : material 
that will fall in rich, heavy folds, unbroken lines, 
deep, soft color, and she is at her best. The tight- 
fitting" black satin, her usual grand costume, is a 
great mistake. The lights reflected from the 
brilliant surface reveal the form; revealed form 
is vulgar, suggested form is poetic. A tall, angu- 
lar woman wants something light and floating — 
a material that will follow every movement, mul- 
tiplying lines and obliterating angles. Proper 
radiations of lines has everything to do with the 
grace and expression of a gown. The shoulders 
and hips are natural points of support. Let the 
drapery fall from these, and the result is a series 
of long, curving radiations that give life and 
beauty. With every change of position there is 
a new series of lines, all free to follow the swing 
and sway of movement. Little catches and fast- 
enings are stiff and meaningless; they break the 
long sweep that alone gives ease and grace." 

In the matter of color, the woman of mezzotint 
takes all the tone from herself when she brings a 
contrast with depth and intensity. She needs a 
background, a setting that will harmonize and 
blend; not black, nor white, nor steely gray, nor 
chill blue; these are rigid and unsympathetic; 
but low, warm tones — old-pink, old-blue, rich 
greens and reds, tints that are not aggressive. 
The artist's rule suggests the color of the hair or 
the color of the eyes as a guide for a becoming 



124 A DELSARTEAX SCRAP-BOOK. 

gown. A bright flower in the bonnet, a conspic- 
uous cluster on the corsage, may add to the style 
of a costume, but unless the wearer have a glow 
and brilliancy that give her the vantage, she 
dare not accept the challenge. What she gains 
in style she loses in personality. A brilliant 
lining in a sleeve, a panel, or vest, a striking em- 
broidery, a showy garniture, if not reached grad- 
ually as a climax or as a high light in the tone 
of color, breaks the succession; it means opposi- 
tion, as when one changes without warning from 
a major to a minor key in the chords of music. 
There is a jar, the rhythm is gone, harmony and 
relation broken. 

These are but the beginnings of the science that 
recognizes the trinity of life and seeks to define 
and ennoble the personality by true and proper 
expression. It is ever " the first step which costs." 
The day must come when woman's dress will be 
much more than the weight-record of a purse. 
Emma Moffett Tyng. 



Bulk and Texture.— Diving into the application of his talk, Mr. Rus- 
sell said that stout women should make a study of textures. " A slight, 
willowy figure, in constant motion, may wear soft stuff and clinging 
draperies. A stout woman should wear something in harmony with her 
bulk, clothes that take heavy folds, suggestive of dignity and calm. We 
usually see the stout woman bursting out of a black satin, shining like 
stove polish, perhaps garnished with Jacqueminot roses, or point lace 
and diamonds, giving the general effect that she is rich and uncomfort- 
able. If stout women would learn to move in grand, slow rhythm, and 
wear textures so heavy that the lines of their figures are concealed, 
they would have a grandeur and dignity that no slender woman could 
hope to attain/ ' 



DEESS ATs T D PERSONALITY. 125 



Looking Backward. — " ' Where is the clerk ? * V I asked, 

" 'I have no need for the clerk yet,' said Edith ; ' I have not made my 
selection.' 

" ' It was the principal business of clerks to help people to make their 
selections in my day,' I replied. 

" ' What ! To tell people what they wanted ? ' 

" ' Yes ; and oftener to induce them to buy what they didn't want. 1 " — 
Edward Bellamy. 

Heard in the Highlands.— " O Marianne, I do think that gown of 
yours is just too lovely for anything, and it is so appropriate to wear up 
here ! " 

The other smiled self - appro viugly. 

" es," she said, smoothing down the folds of the frock in question, " I 
do think this gown sets off the mountains better than any other I ever 
had on.' 1 

Fifteenth-Century Veils. — It is not easy, even for "extremists in 
style," to comprehend the fascination of "veils upon veils," as worn 
four and five centuries ago. At one period the wives and daughters of 
well-to-do citizens were satisfied with nothing less than a framework of 
brass or wire rods upon which to rest the fashionable structure of such 
gauzy fabric as their purses could command ; never less than two feet, 
often three feet or more, the precious veiling was upreared, floating over 
the shoulders like gossamer streamers. A season later additional 
breadths were in request as a face protector, and swiftly following came 
Dame Fashion's order for a limitless amount of material to be so bowed 
and twisted over a starched underpinning as to reach fabulous heights. 
—Harper's Bazar. 

A HINT TO BEAUTY. 
Milliner and hatter show 
Work to please the beU and beau. 
But as change is still the passion 
Of the votaries of fashion, 
That which just now has a pull 
We to-day call beautiful. 
Fashion-plates made in the " fifties," 
Show us all how weak our gift is 
To discern what time will cherish 
From the things that soon will perish. 
Mother Eve in fig-leaves dressed, 
Pallas, with her armored breast, 
Caesar, in imperial state, 
Show a beauty without date ; 
While the portrait, once delightful, 
Forty years may make seem frightful. 
So let your head be always bare 
When seated in the artist's chair. 

— G. F. Hanson in Puck. 



126 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"A knowledge of art is a question of intelli- 
gence, not 'talent. 1 We study art as we would 
literature, to appreciate, not necessarily to write 
poetry."— Edmund Russell. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

STYLE OR EXPRESSION. 

Tight-fitting garments — The lines of drapery — Design 
and ornament — The selection of brocades — Texture 
in dress — Fashion-plates are made for nobody in par- 
ticular, the artistic dress studies the individual. 

Mr. Edmund Russell, the rising- young* artist 
who has excited so much interest of late by his 
lectures on art as it relates to dress and every- 
day life, says that the dress of women is con- 
trolled by the word " stylish," which means one 
thing to-day and another to-morrow, whereas it 
ought to be governed by expression, which is the 
outward evidence of interior taste and character. 
He declares that art underlies all of life and 
brings us into harmonious relations with all the 
forces about us. . . . 

He deprecates the wearing of tight-fitting 
dresses. The figure should not be revealed, but 



STYLE OR EXPRESSION. 127 

suggested by the motion of graceful clothing. He 
would not have detached figures in stuffs, such 
designs as say, looking out from a contrasting 
surface : " Look at me ! I am a water-lily, or a 
rose, or a tulip, or a strawberry, or a bunch of 
grapes." Designs of a distinctive character may 
be used where the object is large enough and the 
folds of a size to conceal and suggest rather than 
to display, but a woman's dress should "sing," 
not talk. Its lines should yield to every motion 
of the pliant figure, and should suggest every 
possibility of beauty and grace. 

He cites Ellen Terry as an example of grace- 
fulness and perfect harmony of color and design 
in dress, but says that generally the dress of wo- 
men is like the furniture in their houses — a mere 
collection of unrelated parts. 

Some of the stuffs designed by the Associated 
Artists were exhibited as models of beauty and 
of skill in manufacture. The majority are for 
upholstery purposes, but after much close exam- 
ination he had found nothing so suitable for artis- 
tic dressing. The reverse side of the richest stuffs 
was best suited for dress purposes, because on 
these the colors were blended in shimmering 
beauty, through which the designs were outlined 
and suggested like the landscape in a lake. Some 
looked like cloth of gold on the under side, and in 
all it was quite a subject for discussion as to 
which was the prettier. 



128 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

Soft silk and silk of lighter texture he recom- 
mended for the slender and willowy women — the 
more massive textures for larger women, who 
should wear Watteau, princess dresses from the 
shoulder, but no tiny lace ruffles or small ribbon 
bows, or coquettish little frippers of that sort. 

He was very severe upon whatever tended to 
check the natural growth and development of the 
body, to prevent full and deep breathing, or to 
alter the pure outline of the human form. An 
error of this kind he considered more serious than 
we can imagine, because the mischief does not 
end with the displacement — the loss of vital 
power of any one organ. It changes the rela- 
tions of the human being to the whole human 
race, making a mass of discords instead of a har- 
mony. 

No dress could possibly be devised that would 
suit all, or ought to suit all, dress-reformers to 
the contrary notwithstanding. The ultimate dress 
would be partly the result of the general intelli- 
gence of the race; partly of the taste and culti- 
vation of the wearer. He thought an ugly thing 
— a thing that does not belong where it is placed 
— a sin and an affliction, though often we are not 
conscious of it; and he said the world had suf- 
fered, or rather had not begun to feel the joy it 
would experience in a knowledge and adaptation 
to the true relations of beauty and harmony to 
activity and growth. True art holds all good- 



STYLE OR EXPRESSION. 129 

ness in a loving embrace, and is a religion in 
itself. 

Jennie June. 



Blackie on Beauty.— Lecturing last week on "Beauty," Professor 
Blackie made some very wise remarks on woman's dress, dealing with 
the question much in the same way as Mr. Edmund Russell. Without 
doubt, a vast number of women who now present a most unattractive 
appearance, however expensively and stylishly dressed, would add in no 
small measure to their charms if they would but cast aside convention- 
ality, and dress to suit themselves— that is, study their own coloring and 
physique, rather than the uncompromising rules of fashion, which are 
apparently made on the assumption that women are all exactly alike.— 
Ladies' 1 Pictorial, London. 

The Limitations op Wealth. — The present times give indications of 
a revival of taste, but the wealth of the masses is so recent an acquisi- 
tion that as yet the art knowledge is far from enough to even pass 
around among the great numbers who buy and wear elaborate and 
numerous costumes and who buy and live in costly and unbeautiful 
homes.— Henrietta Russell. 

As we cannot see color without light, neither can we expect sensibil- 
ity to beauty to grow up naturally amid sordid and depressing sur- 
roundings.— Walter Crane. 



130 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"An art in some degree peculiar and special to 
each individual, with the modifications due to his 
peculiar constitution and the circumstances of his 
growth.'' 1 — Walter Pater. 

"The artist gets upward like the humhle but 
worthy worm, constructs himself, so to speak, as 
he crawls. 1 ^—Nym Crinkle. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

HOW I HEARD OF DELSARTE. 

An adventure in a milliner's shop— Noses and bonnets — 
Learning to fly — The relation of dress to expression — 
Good taste — Artists' wives — Dress and the human 
body — " Coats of skin" — A Greek investigation. 

Fate sometimes likes to conceal her art and 
give us our greatest life-lessons in the form of 
accidents. Napoleon was accidentally born one 
day while his mother was on her way home from 
mass, and he was wrapped up in a piece of old 
tapestry embroidered with scenes from the Iliad. 
That was his first lesson in history. If his mother 
had reached home and he had been born on a 
clean sheet, he might have been contented to 
carry home washing all the days of his life and 
never have dreamed of writing the boundaries of 
France in red ink instead of blue. 

And I might never have heard the name of 



HOW I HEARD OF DELS ARTE. 131 

Delsarte if I had not been dragged, into that par- 
ticular milliner's shop on that particular day. 

I had just returned from Italy, where I had 
been studying- painting" in a Florentine studio, 
and of course thought I knew all there was to 
know about Art. 

While I was asked to be the judge whether it 
should be trimmed with crushed peppermint or 
crushed caramel, my attention was diverted from 
my companion to a little lady all in brown and 
gold, who, with singular grace, was trying on a 
bonnet. 

She stood at a large table, tossing over a lot of 
frames. She did not look in a glass, but would 
take one and say, " Why, that makes my nose 
turn right up." I then looked more critically at 
her face, which I had not examined in detail, and 
thought to myself, " Of course, it always turns 
up — a decided pug, in fact." The pile was turned 
over again. "Now, this makes my nose turn 
down too much." Sure enough, it was positively 
Dantesque ! 

I became alarmed at this " lightning change " 
business, and watching more closely, saw that 
she was not satisfied with things that were merely 
beautiful in themselves, she seemed searching for 
something more — what, I could not find out. She 
would hold the bonnet at arm's-length and study 
all its lines; she seemed to have decided that 
browns and golds were her most becoming colors, 



132 A DELSARTEAJNT SCRAP-BOOK. 

and to keep to them. Then she seemed in some 
way to study the relation of the shape of the 
bonnet to the shape of her jaw, her nose, her 
mouth, the line of her eyebrows, of the hair on 
her forehead, and above all, the relation of its 
g-eneral expression to her romantic type, until at 
last she found one that seemed "just her," and 
when she put it on one forgot all about the bonnet. 

Now, the one she bought was not so pretty a 
bonnet as the one she threw aside, but when she 
went out some one said, " What a pretty woman ! " 
and it stung me with deep shame that I, an 
artist, did not know all this, for, when my lady 
companion, who had been taking my super-Flor- 
entine advice, passed out of the door with me, 
people only said, " What a pretty bonnet ! " 

I forgot something, and went back to desper- 
ately ask the madame if she knew who the lady 
in brown and gold was who had just bought a 
six-cent bonnet. " Oh, yes, she's a Delsartean," 
was her reply. In my ignorance I supposed Del- 
sartean meant something akin to Tahitian, and 
thought perhaps I had made a mistake in study- 
ing art in Florence instead of the Pacific Ocean. 
I caught sight in the glass of my derby and 
wondered what it did to my nose. At last I ven- 
tured : " Delsartean ! and what's that ? " 

"Oh, I don't know what. They have classes 
where they stand in rows and flap their wings 
and try to crow like chickens." 



HOW I HEARD OF DELSARTE. 133 

As I was just then wanting to learn how to 
fly, I employed a private detective, found and 
joined the class. 

Well, that is one of the best lessons in art I 
ever had, so in gratitude to the milliner's shop I 
cannot refuse when asked to say a few words on 
dress, although they will be but a repetition of 
that lesson. 

Dress really should be " an art in some degree 
peculiar and special to each individual, with the 
modifications due to his peculiar constitution and 
the circumstances of his growth." 

It is the most complex and difficult of all the 
arts, for resting on the framework of the human 
body, an adjunct and accomplice in all man's ex- 
pression, it requires the broadest knowledge of 
humanity and individuality to understand its 
mysteries. And as the hand of the pianist must 
be kept in perfect mechanical condition to play 
well, so must the body, on which all dress de- 
pends (in every sense), be kept in perfect mechan- 
ical condition to dress well. 

A decoration is to make something else beau- 
tiful. It must not assert, but sacrifice itself. 

It is difficult to apply art knowledge to daily, 
ordinary life. We have many good pieces of 
composition and color in pictures, but artists' 
wives are notoriously bad dressers, and why ? 
Because this art belongs to a different realm — 
the realm of expression. A dress isn't going 



134 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

to be admired in a gold frame or on a pedes- 
tal. It is going" to be on a human being; part j 
of his life; part of his reality to other men. 
His every movement will change its expression. 
Its every line will alter his. 

The taste that only grasps the beauty of an 
individual object is a very primitive one. The 
higher knowledge of art will take that object and 
so relate it that it becomes part of a harmony — one 
note in a whole orchestra of beauty; failing this, 
a home — our highest art work — looks like a mu- 
seum, a curiosity shop or, oftener, an upholsterer's. 

So in dress. It is not difficult to become a con- 
noisseur of a beautiful bust or to see that a hip is 
a trifle too wide for perfect proportion — to tell 
rose point from Valenciennes, to know a pretty 
bonnet when we see it on a dummy or on a mil- 
liner's assistant. But few know by instinct, and 
fewer by knowledge, those subtler relations of 
line and coloring to the lines and colors of the 
wearer, the expression of different orders of mo- 
tion as revealing character, the expression of dif- 
ferent textures in materials, the relation of the 
lights in jewels to the gleam of the eyes and 
teeth, to the shadows or high lights of the com- 
plexion. How to enhance a virtue here and 
"nugatize" a defect there, and more than this, 
how to make a dress represent its wearer in char- 
acter at her best — an art which few know can be 
studied, and it can be studied. 



HOW I HEARD OF DELSARTE. 135 

It is so much easier to go the way the crowd 
goes. Most people merely emphasize the general 
principle of respectability in society by parallel- 
ism. They " consider it their duty to be of the 
same religion as the family they are with," as the 
servant-girl said. 

The artistic dress is one especially designed to 
suit all the characteristic points of the individual. 
The fashionable dress is made for no one in par- 
ticular; it is adopted by all people, not for their 
expression, but for its. But no matter how ludi- 
crous is the combination of dress and woman if 
it is the " style." I saw a fat woman recently 
standing on the piazza of the West End Hotel in 
an Empire gown and a sailor hat. 

If art — by art I do not mean the study of the 
special technique of painting and drawing, but 
real art principles — were made a part of our or- 
dinary education, we should not have to send 
abroad for our fashions. Being unable to put the 
stamp of beauty on ourselves, we accept what 
others (tradesmen usually, not artists) call beau- 
tiful, and substitute the words " fashionable " and 
" stylish " as a compromise. 

The dominant quality of modern life is wealth 
— and ignorance of how to use it. 

The dominant quality of modern art is talent — 
and ignorance of how to educate it. 

The greatest need of modern life is a knowl- 
edge of the principles of art. 



136 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

Our changing* fashions are but a confession of 
ignorance — we do not know enough when we get 
a good thing to keep it, like an actor who before 
he finishes one gesture begins another and ex- 
presses nothing. 

When in this article I use the word we I do not 
refer to Americans particularly; for I think in no 
country in the world has there been such an ad- 
vance in the study of decorative art and the prin- 
ciples of good taste, but to the civilized world in 
general. 

But yet America, independent, original as she 
is, has to send across the water for all her ideas 
as to what to put on her body. (Apologies to 
the Associated Artists' silks, the finest textile 
fabrics of modern times, which few, as yet, know 
enough to use.) We shall grow out of this some 
time. It won't be at a jump. We have an idea 
that some one will write the American novel or 
play, or build the American house. It was never 
known in the history of art that anything great 
came all at once. Study the Egyptian, Grecian, 
and Roman. You cannot find the place where 
one leaves off and the next begins, or where a 
period does not show the influence of what has 
gone before. So we must expect a certain imita- 
tion of continental styles and ideas. Art is a de- 
velopment, not an invention. A great artist will 
not arise all at once and hand us a ready-made 
costume — certainly, we wouldn't accept it if he 



HOW I HEARD OF DELSARTE. 137 

did. When, in our common schools, we discuss 
not simply the boundaries of China on the prac- 
tical side, or the " whichness of the what " on the 
philosophic, but make a study of actual life and 
how we can best fit an individual for his work in 
the world — we will find that, above all, he must 
live and move naturally; that his dress should 
not interfere in any way with this, and that the 
studies of correct breathing, free motion, a good 
poise, harmonious rhythm, are vital problems. 
Then good dressing may come as something 
which will help, and not interfere with, these 
things. 

Victor Hugo says : " If you want a great na- 
tion, educate your grandmothers." 

In the Garden of Eden the Lord gave the 
spirits presents of " coats of skin." The subse- 
quent varying and changeful climate of the globe 
rendered it necessary for them to make them- 
selves " over-coats." The earliest dress was dra- 
pery for several different reasons, all closely relat- 
ed to man's body. The savage in winter took a 
blanket or a piece of fur and wrapped it around 
him because he was cold. Then the nations who 
had ideas of what we call modesty wrapped it 
around them to hide their form. When people 
became vulgar enough to consider the human 
form indecent, dress was no longer made in rela- 
tion to it, but became itself the important object 



138 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

and a mere vehicle of display. It was ornamented 
and put on because it was beautiful in itself. 

Our modern dress combines the three purposes, 
to warm, to cover, to make beautiful, but princi- 
pally to display the opulence of the wearer. 

In a natural dress the radiation from the points 
of support which the body furnishes becomes its 
highest beauty. Motion constantly changes these 
radiations — and makes it alive. Dress is the only 
decorative thing that moves. It is almost a lan- 
guage by itself. It then takes a still higher 
beauty from the expression of the wearer — so a 
simple white drapery thrown over the figure may 
become very complex in its meaning and take on 
to itself the expression of everything high or low 
that a human being can say. Dress is a human, 
not an artificial study. 

At one time the natural beauty of the human 
form was not merely a tradition, as it is now, 
and the Greeks not only remembered that they 
" were all naked under their clothes," but even 
demanded occasional public investigation of the 
fact, to see if their youth were growing up ac- 
cording to nature's laws or not; and if not, to 
apply some remedy of physical culture or gym- 
nastic, to lift the chest, straighten the limbs, 
make flexible the tightened joints or strengthen 
the flaccid muscles, always with an eye to both 
health and beauty. They regarded the " perfect 



HOW I HEARD OF DELSARTE. 139 

physical sanity of their young" men and women 
as the noblest sacrifice to the gods." 

It would have been considered then a crime 
against nature to lash the ribs together so they 
lapped over; to imprison the feet till their elab- 
orate mechanism was reduced to a flat tread, 
which robbed them of their spring and jarred 
the whole nervous system in walking; and to kill 
the expression of the neck in a high stiff collar. 

Now, it is dress that makes the man and not 
the bearing of the man that gives the expression 
to dress. It is now of no importance whether we 
are even human beings under our clothes, pro- 
vided they are good clothes. 

I should not care to form one of a Greek in- 
vestigating committee in these days, but the lit- 
tle I know of motion and expression compels 
me to despise a form of dress that in any way 
dwarfs or hinders the natural expression of the 
body or prevents it from speaking its highest 
and best. 

Edmund Russell. 



The Life op Art.— To keep the eye clear by a sort of exquisite per- 
sonal alacrity and cleanliness, extending even to its dwelling-place ; to 
discriminate ever more and more exactly ; select form and color in 
things from what was less select ; to meditate much on beautiful visible 
objects ; to keep ever by him if it were but a single choice flower, a 
graceful animal or sea-shell, as a token and representative of the whole 
kingdom of such things. -Walter Pater. 



140 A DELSARTEAN SCKAP-BOOK. 



" When we believe the world to be good and 
beautiful, when, in fact, we can see poetry in 
nature, we may, in the course of time, learn to 
express that poetry by rules of art. 

" Were I a great preacher, or speaker of any 
kind, I would make it my mission to teach this 
one lesson to America— the love of the beautiful." 
—Joaquin Miller. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

"GONE DAFT ON DRESS." 

The effect of the preceding chapter — Chicago ladies 
crazy on the subject of being artistic — Edmund Rus- 
sell to blame — Milliners say that since he began lec- 
turing there they cannot please their customers — 
Mrs. Hardcash and Miss Simperum — She wanted 
something to carry out the color of her eyes. 

She was trying on, one after another, dainty 
head-gears fit for the beauties who figure in a 
"Thousand and One Nights." Truly, regarded 
from an artistic standpoint, some of them were 
improbable creatures, but in and of themselves 
they were pretty and each and every one was 
becoming to her. She had a delicate oval face, 
as softly rounded as a Raphael cherub, with fluffy 
hair shining where it caught the light like corn- 
tassels. Anything was becoming to her. If she 
had put on a battered old "tile" it would have 
looked well, and this was the reason why she was 



"gone daft on dress." 141 

valuable as a seller of hats and bonnets. Mrs. 
Hardcash, who was well on in the forties, and 
Miss Simperuin, whose age was so thoroughly a 
movable feast that it was never fixed, each fan- 
cied that they saw themselves as others would 
see them when her flower-like face was beneath 
the bonnet they each willingly selected after she 
put it on to let them see " just how it would look." 

The pretty girl stood amid the bewildering 
array of ribbons and flowers and all sorts of 
bright-hued gew-gaws, with smiling acquiescence 
putting on bonnets and hats from the different 
show-cases, but there was a plainly visible under- 
tow in the expression and manner as she turned 
to search for something she did not find which 
was inquired for by one of her customers. 

At last they moved on without having made a 
purchase, and, with a vehemence wholly at vari- 
ance with her rose-leaf daintiness, she exclaimed, 
sotto voce: " Out upon Edmund Russell, anyway ! 
I wish to goodness he had gone with McGinty 
before he ever struck Chicago ! " Then, observ- 
ing in a mirror opposite that she had an auditor, 
she turned and, with heightened color, explained 
that since Edmund Russell was here two-thirds 
of the women in Chicago were daft on the subject 
of being artistic. 

" Much they know about it," she continued en- 
ergetically. " They come in here and inquire for 
things that never were in this or any other 



142 A. DELSARTEAK SCRAP-BOOK. 

stock." Then seeing sympathy in the face of 
her listener, she added : " Pve been in the trade 
three years. It looks very pretty, but it is the 
very hardest stock in the world to handle. What- 
ever else a woman wears who dresses at all, or 
however she wears it, she expects her bonnet or 
hat to make her look pretty. It was hard enough 
to manage 'em before Russell was here putting 
all sorts of impossible notions into their heads 
about matching the color of their eyes and hair 
and the ' tone ' of the complexion, but now it is 
little short of maddening. I just -wish with all 
my heart he had to fit out all his pupils and their 
friends, for the thing is as bad as small-pox — it's 
catching, with spring hats and bonnets. He 
would never live through it — no man could." 

At this point in the pretty little saleswoman's 
tirade a group of customers made their appear- 
ance, led by a woman of enormous bulk, who 
came up puffing like a tug headed against a heavy 
sea. She seated herself and inquired for some- 
thing dressy and stylish, either a bonnet or toque, 
in gray with a strong suspicion of green in it. 
" Something," she added, " that carries out the 
color of my eyes," and she rolled up two small, 
bulging orbs, resting between cushions of fat, for 
inspection, while the little saleswoman, with a 
you-see-how-it-is expression of face, turned to the 
cases to look for some sort of a head-rig of " gray 
with a strong suspicion of green in it." 



"gone daft on dress." 143 

After much searching' and trying" on, a lilipu- 
tian capote of ash-green straw wreathed in leaves 
of the same shade was brought forth. On the 
head of the girl who was trying" to sell it, it was 
bewitching enough to have turned the head and 
enmeshed the heart of St. Anthony himself. But 
the woman in fat, with her sallow skin, lustreless 
eyes, and puffy, colorless cheek, " angels and min- 
isters of grace defend us," how she did look in it ! 
As she sat ogling herself in the mirror, to see 
that her eyes were exactly matched, she resem- 
bled nothing in the world so much as a Chinese 
joss. However, her eyes were matched, as her 
friends assured, and ordering- her old bonnet sent 
home, she sallied forth with the evident convic- 
tion that for once in her life she was artistic as 
to her bonnet. 

" That was a very mild case," said the little 
saleswoman, who had grown thoroughly confiden- 
tial. Then a woman with all the ear-marks of the 
would-be aesthete came in and asked to see all 
the newest shajDes, as she wished to study them 
in relation to her face. 

" That's another of them, and it will go hard 
with the shapes," whispered the vender of mil- 
linery in passing. Then as one after another of 
the different styles offered this student of herself 
in relation to bonnet shapes was rejected, the 
saleswoman ventured the remark that the shape 
she then had on was becoming to her. She ob- 



144 A DELSAETEAT^ SCEAP-BOOK. 

jected that it was too old for her, although how 
she could arrive at this conclusion was a mys- 
tery, as the strong" side light on the mirror brought 
out in hold relief her full set of wrinkles. After 
asking for ashes-of-rose, pink, and divers other 
colors and combinations of color which were not 
in the stock, she decided to take a fifteen-cent 
frame, which in shape she said was harmoni- 
ous with her ensemble. After having inquired 
if the little saleswoman had attended the Russell 
lectures, and declaring that he should have be- 
gun by instructing tradespeople, as really one 
could not dress artistically when one could not 
get artistic materials, sighing like a furnace over 
the shortcomings of those who cater to the public 
needs, she took her departure. 

"Hear Russell, indeed!" exclaimed the irate 
girl as she replaced the stock of bonnets and hats 
which had been used by this woman in making 
her " study." " Fve heard enough of him, heaven 
knows. For the past two months Fve heard 
nothing but f A decoration is to make something 
else beautiful; it must not assert, but sacrifice 
itself/ 

Ui Dress is the only decorative thing that 
moves; it is a language of itself.' 

" 'A secret of artistic dressing is to match the 
hair as nearly as possible for day and eyes for 
evening wear.' 

" ' The producing of an all-over effect by dra- 






"gone daft on dress." 145 

pery, veiling, and heed -gear of the same shade is 
most thoroughly artistic.' 

" And also all about mezzo-tints, keynotes, ad- 
justments of relations, and all the rest of it. 
The worst of it is that it is the women that 
have money who listen to him. Our best cus- 
tomers are no longer suited with anything we can 
show them. My commissions are just nothing 
at all. The manager says it is only a fad and 
that it is the cold weather that is ruining the 
trade, but I know better; it is Edmund Russell, 
and I just hope that oblivion will take him un- 
der her languid wing before he ever has a chance 
to come back here," and # with a determined little 
nod and a bewitching smile she turned to attend 
to a newly-arrived customer. 



Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth.— Herein lies the great art of 
dress : to know just how far to draw attention to clothes and no farther; 
never to allow them to impinge upon the interest that should be centred 
in the face. I have seen intelligent human beings who apparently chose 
that their attire should be the first and last thing one thought of in 
connection with them. No beautiful woman, if she be clever withal, 
makes this mistake. Her dress may be sumptuous ; it may heighten 
her attractions if judiciously chosen ; it should never astonish and be- 
wilder us. We read of the gorgeous attire of Queen Elizabeth, and 
are dazzled with the cloth of gold, the pearl-embroidered ruff, and jew- 
elled stomacher recorded in Zucchero's portraits of that vain and ill- 
favored sovereign. They are the woman ; and take an undue prominence 
in our recollection of the thin, shadowless face, surrounded and over- 
powered by so much magnificence. But of her beautiful rival's clothes 
we hear little ; and when we think of th 3 Hollyrood portrait of Mary, it 
is the refinement and dignity of the lady we remember, not the splendor 
of her apparel.— Hamilton Aide in Fortnightly Review. 
IO 



146 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"Some hosts have no more idea of hospitality 
than a Congo debutante has of Delsarte.' n — Bill 
Nye. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

IS A CHANGE IN DRESS IMPENDING? 

The Prince of Wales — The queen's drawing-room at 
Balmoral — Our present clothes ridiculous, inartistic, 
and uncomfortable — Sir Edwin Arnold at home — An 
Indian philosopher and the English ladies— Russian 
emigrants — Madame Ponisi's description of Rachel. 

Abroad there is at present great discussion 
about change in dress. All look for it to come 
from some higher source than themselves. Some 
look for a great genius who will invent an en- 
tirely new order of costume, or declare if the 
Prince of Wales could only become the leader of 
the new movement its success would be assured. 
But, alas! the Prince of Wales' dress consists 
of trousers, coat, and vest of different colors and 
different patterns. His dress is like his mother's 
drawing-room at Balmoral, which is carpeted 
with Highland plaid, with furniture checked off 
in the red and green of the Stuart clan. I am 
tired of waiting for the higher authorities. I put 
on the garb of mourning in the street, but in the 
house I claim my right to beauty, to color, to 



IS A CHANGE IN DRESS IMPENDING? 147 

line, to expression, and will take them from any 
country or age where I may find them. An art- 
ist who spends his time in the study of beauty 
and whose mind becomes awakened to the ugli- 
ness of the pot hat, black coat, check trousers, 
finds it intolerable to put them on every day. A 
musician would go mad with such discord in his 
ears as we have to stand always before our eyes. 
The musical discord is for a moment, but the color 
stays and will not change. Modern dress has no 
beauty of line, design, texture, or color. It hides 
all the plastic beauty of the figure and robs it of 
freedom of expression. It cuts the form up into 
parts and pays no regard to its expression as a 
whole. There is no reason in our garment. As 
William Morris said : " We wear a coat without 
a front over a vest, which is a coat without a 
back." Clothes are pinched at the chest and are 
not free at the extremities. They do not give 
an opportunity for a deep diaphragmatic breath. 
They constrain the form so that a singer or 
speaker cannot give full tone to the voice or an 
actor a good poise to the figure or grace to his 
movements. A walk like that of Salvini when 
he appears in answer to the summons of Caesar 
is only possible in loose garments that grace the 
form, give freedom to the extremities and liberty 
of action to every part. 

****** 

I spent a Sunday with Sir Edwin Arnold just 



148 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

before leaving- London and found him wearing 
the Indian " choja " — so dignified and so beautiful. 
The lines of his beard continued by the lines of 
the garment, the charm of his manner repeated in 
the graceful, poetic lines which varied with every 
changing- expression. I have noticed that when 
the Indian students attended receptions in Lon- 
don in their own costume every one asked, " Who 
are those distinguished Oriental strangers ? " but 
when they adopted our style of dress it was, 
"How badly they look in Engiish clothes;" and 
their grace and dig-nity are spoken of no more. 
The change is so great that one then realizes the 
hideous ugliness of their eternal blackness. The 
high choking collar of modern style prevents 
moving the head and gives a stiff-necked appear- 
ance. Properly speaking, the collar should not 
come above the point where the neck joins the 
body. I asked a native of India what he thought 
of our ladies. He replied they reminded him of 
magnificent antique torsos with movable heads. 
The Indian woman covers her head with a veil 
and turns her back when spoken to. Her body 
is graceful and moves in undulating rhythm. He 
had never seen an English woman's body move. 
****** 
There has never been a period of such utter 
stupidity in dress as the present. Even old age 
is not respected now, and an old man wears the 
same cut of clothes as his grandson, and all the 



IS A CHANGE IN DRESS IMPENDING? 149 

dignity of lines, flowing* garments, dark rich 
colors, fur, and velvet, have passed away. Among 
some Russian emigrants the other day I saw an 
old man with a long gray beard wearing a coat 
of gray wolf-skin which ran into all the tones of 
his beard. With him was another old man with 
a long red beard who was like a picture in a coat 
of bear-skin of reddish-brown. Was it accident 
that these two ignorant peasants had chosen 
colors to harmonize with themselves? Was it 
accident, design, or instinct ? If it was accident, 
then our stupidity must be design, and if it is in- 
stinct, what is cultivating our instinct ? I think 
that in every public school there should be instruc- 
tion in all that relates to the making of a home, 
to dress, etc. We learn many sciences. We 
can " poss the impossible," but we can't make a 
home. We have a little industrial drawing, a 
little endeavor to make charcoal look like plaster 
casts and paint like skin. I rarely meet even a 
well-educated person who can select a good car- 
pet, a wall paper, and a ceiling and have them all 
in harmom T . The greatest art work the individ- 
ual has to do is the building of a home, and there 
is nothing in modern education that fits him to 
do it. The principles of line and color, of arrange- 
ment and of expression, can be as easily taught 
as the rules of algebra, the movements of the 
planets, or the boundaries of China. Education 
should fit us for the life we are going to live and 



150 A DELSARTEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

should both preserve and develop our individual- 
ity. What we need is more study of art; not of 
the arts with their special technique, painting', 
sculpture, and music, but a knowledge of the 
principles of art at the centre, the art human, 
the art of daily life. The models which seem to 
be followed in dress to-day are the German-sol- 
dier man and the Noah/s-ark woman. People are 
less anxious to wear what is becoming than to 
wear what is the latest style. The fundamental 
laws of beauty are violated by modern costumes. 
The beauty of lines radiating from the points of 
support which is so fine in the Grecian dress is 
ignored now. A beautiful woman is on her low- 
est plane in a tight-fitting dress — an ugly woman 
at her best in drapery. The graceful undulations 
of the form are prevented by the tightening, 
which is just enough to cramp motion, and not 
tight enough to reveal beauty; and the laws of 
health, as well as those of beauty, are violated. 
The freedom of motion and the grace of carriage 
are no longer possible. Men and women are me- 
chanical; their movements are abrupt and lack 
the grace of expression. The gestures of people 
in conversation and of actors on the stage do not 
extend over the whole body, but are spasmodic, 
broken, and expressionless. The fundamental 
law of expression is control at the centre, free- 
dom at the extremities, and perfect flexibility of 
all parts of the body, so that it responds to the 



IS A CHANGE IN DEESS IMPENDING? 151 

passing emotion and translates it faithfully. The 
loves of to-day, not the scars of yesterday, re- 
quire the highest harmony of motion for their ex- 
pression. In great actors the body is so sensi- 
tive that the motion passes over it in great waves, 
so fine, so complicated in its harmony that we 
think of it as expression, not gesture. Thus we 
often hear it said of a great actress, " Oh, she 
makes very few gestures." Talking once with 
Madame Ponisi about Rachel, she said : " I can- 
not describe her. I can only speak of her effect 
on the audience. We fairly clung to our seats 
in horror." " What did she do ? " I asked. " Oh, 
she did not do anything. She only stood by a 
pillar." Rachel motionless by a pillar and the 
modern girl motionless in a tailor-made suit stand 
on the opposite poles of expression. 

Intervieiv with Edmund Russell. 



The Home op a Soul.— The house in which she lives, says a mystical 
German writer, is for the orderly soul which does not live on blindly be- 
fore her, but is ever, out of her passing experiences, building and adorning 
the parts of a many-roomed abode for herself, only an expansion of the 
body; as the body, according to the philosophy of Swedenborg, is but an 
expansion of the soul. For such an orderly soul as she lives onward, all 
sorts of delicate affinities establish themselves between her and the 
doors and passage-ways, the lights and shadows of her outward abode, 
until she seems incorporated into it — till at last in the entire expressive- 
ness of what is outward, there is to her, to speak properly, no longer any 
distinction between outward and inward at all ; and the particular pic- 
ture or space upon the wall, the scent of flowers in the air at a particular 
window, become to her not so much apprehended objects as themselves 
powers of apprehension and doorways to things beyond— seeds or rudi- 
iments of her faculties, by which she dimly yet surely apprehends a 
matter lying beyond her actually attained capacity of sense and spirit. 
—Marius the Epicurean, 



152 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"The end and aim of all our work should be the 
harmonious growth of our whole being."— Froebel. 

"Make work what God meant it to be: the 
school of character. There are only two states, 
life and death, the presence or absence of helpful 
association.'''' — Heber Newton. 

"Books are no more education than laws are 
virtue." —Frederic Harrison. 



CHAPTER XX. 

A TALK ON HOUSE DECORATION. 

A woman's description of another woman — How to ar- 
range our walls— Striking contrasts call too much 
attention to themselves — Complexity in color — Black 
again— Practical art — What is conventionalization ? 

One of the most unique, winning, and attrac- 
tive specimens of womanhood it has ever been 
my lot to see. Medium size, lithe, panther-like 
in motion, dark hair and eyes, surrounded by a 
cloud of wonderful gold-red silken robe which 
hung about her in straight, scarcely-draped 
lengths from shoulder to floor. 

It was the color of sumach-leaves in late fall. 
It formed a small circle just above the collar- 
bones and well below the turn of the neck. The 
back was close-fitting, with corsetless, plump sin- 
uous curves. The front hung as in the pictures 
of old Roman senators, ever so slightly raised 



A TALK ON HOUSE DECORATION. 153 

from the feet to the left, forming a few easy folds 
like so many swan's necks. The sleeves were 
smooth and long-. The neck was hung in strands 
of red coral, punctuated at intervals by knobs of 
carved coral, large as walnuts, from which strands 
depended irregularly to the waist. The dark 
brown hair was coiled low on the neck and brushed 
out at the sides as in that Egyptian picture yon- 
der. The dark eyes glowed like soft coals of fire 
from under a low, broad forehead. White teeth 
snapped and gleamed while she talked, and the 
small hands spoke quite as much as the lips, I 
think. Fun of it was we all sat there looking for 
her appearance from behind a quaint Indian 
screen that graced the stage entrance, when to 
our astonishment up she swirled through the aisle 
from behind us, her long golden train snaking 
along after her noiseless motion, her graceful 
head curving from right to left in recognition of 
the soft " womany " glove-pats that greeted her 
appearance. Her voice was pitched in a musical, 
gurgling alto distinct and adaptable. Her man- 
ner was exactly as it might be here in this ele- 
gant boudoir talking to us two — anything less 
like a female lecturer you cannot imagine. 
" 'Em ; what did she say about the decoration ? " 
The very first sentence made me think about 
Mamie D. She said that inherent or natural 
beauty should never be snuffed out by adorn- 
ment. You know, Mamie just dredges herself 



154 A DELSAKTEAIST SCRAP-BOOK. 

with, brilliant stones after she is dressed, so that 
in looking* at her we see nothing* but them, and 
it never occurs to us that she has wonderful 
sparkling- eyes, teeth, and complexion. 

She said that the least bit of inherent beauty 
was ever so much more important and attractive 
than that which was accessory, and that when the 
latter was placed over the former good taste was 
violated and unconsciously the mind rejected, es- 
pecially if a trained, attentive mind. 

She explained the leaning of a cultivated mind 
to light and delicate hues by saying that sharp 
contrasts of red and white, black and yellow, blue 
and red, were but the beginning of observation 
as in children and the ignorant; the finer varia- 
tions of color appealed only to developed taste. 
Good idea I have often wondered why the " com- 
mon colors" were considered vulgar. Indeed, I 
remember when they were more attractive to 
myself than they are now. 

She objected to pictures as wall ornaments and 
square frames for backgrounds, saying* they more 
often than not disfigure the heads and faces of 
people standing in front of them. For instance, 
see me stand in front of this yellow frame, green 
landscape, brown and red figuring, with my 
blonde tints and lavender dressing. The discord- 
ance is as bad for your paper too as for me. Prob- 
ably "low taste" would not experience the sensa- 
tion of seasickness which such conjunctions pro- 



A TALK ON HOUSE DECORATION. 155 

duce upon the artist in color. Besides, she said 
that after the first newness pictures were never 
looked at, studied, or even enjoyed, and that every 
object taken into the mind mechanically, like this, 
was bad for the mind, which should be either di- 
rectly exercised or soothed by that upon which it 
rested. How many in the audience do you imag- 
ine remembered looking* at any one picture in 
their room this week? Just two. She asked 
them. She objected to portraits as decoration, 
saying their presence, if at all impressive, was too 
stimulating. She said it was astonishing the 
number of things upon which the eye rested and 
of which the mind took no notice, and asked as a 
proof of this and also as an education that we 
count the number of colors in a gray or brown 
picture. We should find hundreds where we had 
thought of but two. " The Angelus " she said 
had thousands. It really looked like the shadings 
of two, did it not ? You know Mons. Delos is 
painting my little Margaret, and what was my 
astonishment to see him mixing up green paint to 
make her golden curls. " Why, madame knows," 
he said, " that the shadows of the blonde are al- 
ways green ! " 

Who'd ever thought of it ? 

She said that for herself she could not see the 
objection to color and variety of it in dress. I 
could have gone right up then and hugged her. 
You know the ambition of my life is to dress like 



156 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

a gypsy or an Arab chiefs daughter. She did 
not see how ladies had such a variety of exquisite 
colors hung- on their walls while they themselves 
went around in dead-black. All black, she said, 
except when cut low, invariably made a woman 
look old. Never was a greater mistake made 
than in adhering to it so closely. The extrava- 
gance of compliments that is showered upon a 
female on the appearance of an unaccustomed 
black costume is never accorded the woman who 
habitually wears one. Then we have black, black, 
black, to match, even to black note-paper ! How 
long before we shall have black borders on white 
walls or rooms clad in black upholstery ? There 
was nothing decorative, she assured us, in black 
gowns. 

A bright idea she suggested in this direction 
was that the religiousness of the nations had, in 
a way, led to the idea that while there was no 
harm in the representation of variety on canvas, 
the slightest approach to adornment of the per- 
son was a species of vanity that was sin. She 
illustrated by the case of a celebrated painter 
who fumed with rage because, forsooth, a lady 
had asked him to paint her fan ! Many artists, 
ancient and modern, have stained-in a forest of 
artistic ideality on square canvases in square 
frames who disdained to make anything beauti- 
ful that could by any possible means be made 
useful as well. Souls and bodies of masters had 



A TALK ON HOUSE DECORATION. 157 

been immolated on ideal " Mother Marys." Why 
disdain to adorn and beautify the real mother 
of humanity? Indeed, she thought, however 
much religious motive the old painters had in 
painting' these holy women, it was because we de- 
ified motherhood that we loved their works so 
well. She spoke of a modern artist who created 
a sensation and no little fame by his one-color 
pictures. There was a "red woman," a "blue 
group," a " white lady," etc., results wrought by 
grouping all the numerous tints and shades of 
one particular color. Parodies of this artistic 
novelty appeared in the blue, red, green, and yel- 
low rooms which were tiresome masses of single 
color. 

She illustrated the idea of the "realistic" in 
sculpture and painting by a story of a Chinaman 
who, when given an old pair of trousers from 
which to model a new pair, copied them exact- 
ly, patches and all. Speaking of the modern 
practice of purchasing foreign pictures through 
agents, she said that few American business men 
got more than a vainglorious satisfaction out of 
this sort of thing; that one dared not buy what 
gave him sensations of pleasure because his sen- 
sations of pleasure in this regard were not suffi- 
ciently trained; that their training was a ques- 
tion of more time than his short, busy life afforded, 
but that for his children the agency purchase 
was best, as contemplation meant culture, the 



158 A DELSAKTEAN SCKAP-BOOK. 

better the picture the better the training*, and the 
next generation could doubtless dispense with 
the agent. 

For my part I pity the poor man who must use 
his wealth and forego his sensations of picture 
pleasure for the good of his posterity. "Cute 
ideas, all of them, are they not, dear ? Tired ? " 
"Oh, dear me, no; these are just the things I 
want to know. You see, Walter insists on mov- 
ing- into one of those Riverside palaces in May, 
and as his taste is fine and time limited I can be 
a helpmeet to him by being ' up ' on the latest." 

" ' Helpmeet ! ' Before I'd make as much work 
keeping- a husband in good humor as you ! That's 
well enough for a lover or one you are not sure 

of, but " " There's where you make your mis* 

take, dear! One is never sure. It means more 
work to keep than to g-et them. Besides — but g-o 
on with the decorations." 

An entirely new idea to me was that of " con- 
ventionalizing " subjects to make them fit for 
decorative purposes. I had often heard the word, 
but did not know what it meant. It means mod- 
ifying- the representation of a real thing to make 
it in keeping with its surroundings as a decora- 
tion. For instance, you know the subjects usually 
chosen to make a frieze or border on a wall have 
been of a fanciful, poetical picturesque. Well, in 
the studio of the celebrated Walter Crane, of 
London, is a remarkable innovation in this line. 



A TALK ON HOUSE DECORATION. 159 

The frieze represents a scene from a London 
drawing-room during a reception. The scene 
transferred bodily from life, with the inevitable 
mingling of grace and awkwardness, beauty and 
iomeliness, delicacy and stiffness, would have 
Jnade anything but a desirable ornament. The 
really real was first spiritualized by being copied 
in bas-relief. Then only such figures were chosen 
as possessed unusually fine proportions of limb 
and figure. They were disposed on curving hard 
benches to show them off to best advantage, in- 
stead of upholstery, which swallows curves. The 
unconventional in dress was chosen — the empire 
gown, the unsewed robe — for of all the inartistic 
things in all nature or art the seam is the worst. 
Men of unusual length of limb were chosen to 
soften the effect of the modern evening dress, and 
a still greater license Avas taken with one who 
was engaged in giving a recitation. His figure 
was draped in Florentine costume tinted in pale 
color. 

The effect was electrical in the decorativ? world 
especially recognized by such authority as Mr. 
Crane. The question arose with me whether we 
should not now, in the interest of art, choose our 
friends by their length of limb and fill our parlors 
only with gracefully disposing figures. 

I>3 T the way, she analyzed the word convention- 
ality by saying we convene together and decide 
so and so — that hats shall be worn at such times 



160 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

and removed at others, that we bow on meeting* 
acquaintances, etc. This way of putting- it robs 
the word of half its horror. 

Her name ? Oh, dear me, to be sure — Mrs. 
Edmund Russell. Her nation? American. Her 
art ? The art of art. Good-by ! 

Fannie Edgae Thomas. 



The Fulfilment op the Law.— There is no branch of human work 
whose constant laws have not a close analogy with those which govern 
every other mode of man's exertion. Exactly as we reduce to greater 
simplicity and surety any one group of these practical laws, we find them 
passing the mere condition of connection or analogy, and becoming the 
actual expression of some ultimate nerve or fibre of the mighty laws 
which govern the moral world. However inconsiderable the act, there 
is something in the well-doing of it allied to the noblest forms of manly 
virtue— the truth, decision, and temperance we regard as honorable con- 
ditions of spiritual being have a derivative influence over the works of 
the hand and action of the intellect.— Buskin. 

What a Stout Woman Must Not Wear.— The stout woman is always 
asking what she shall wear. Now these are some of the things she 
should not wear : She should not wear a tailor-made suit fitting her 
figure closely ; it brings out every pound of flesh for the benefit of the 
looker-on. She should not wear a rosette at her belt, either at the back 
or front ; it makes her look thicker through. She should not wear a 
lace or ribbon ruff about her neck, though the soft feather one is per- 
missible if it have long ends. She should not wear a short skirt ; it gives 
her a queer, dumpy look that is specially undesirable. She should not 
wear her hair low on her neck ; it should be high and arranged with 
great smoothness, though it need not look oily. She should not wear a 
string of beads about her neck, rings in her ears, or, if her fingers are 
short and fat, many rings on them. 

Compliments which we think are deserved we accept only as debts, 
with indifference ; but those which conscience informs us we do not 
merit we receive with the same gratitude that we do favors given away. 



IVORY AND GOLD. 161 



"Decorative art is at once the seed and the 
fruit of all great art. " —Frederic Shields. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

IVORY AND GOLD. 

The relation of objects — A copper dining-room — Com- 
plexion and wall-paper — A study in harmony — Frieze 
of magnolias — Painted portieres — A new simplicity. 

Edmund Russell, who is to set sail for Eng- 
land shortly, has taken up his residence in Brook- 
lyn for a time, in order to complete a work of in- 
terior decoration in the house of a Brooklyn citi- 
zen. Two rooms have been treated by him, one 
in gold and ivory and the other in copper and 
pale, warm brown. The parlor has been tinted 
— walls and ceiling — in a not very positive white 
(the last attenuation of gray with a suspicion of 
green in it), and this is mottled w T ith gold, flecked 
lightly and loosely over the surface. A broad 
frieze, separated from the rest of the wail by a 
thin strip of moulding, is adorned in a large, free, 
simple stj'le, with leaves and blossoms of south- 
ern magnolia grandiflora and conventionalized 
suns a la Japonaise. The color throughout is 
kept light and refined, and the decoration is easy 



162 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

and unforced. In the room adjoining, where a 
pale tint of copper is used as a background and 
is overlaid with dashes of bronze powder of 
strong copper tint, the frieze decoration is a suc- 
cession of pine boughs, lightly fringed with their 
needles, and striking upward diagonally in brisk 
and angular growths. Above the large sideboard 
is a boldly-executed panel, representing magnolia 
blossoms and their heavy, polished leaves, with 
much brown in their stems and shadows. The 
first room seems suffused with a tender light, 
that clears and softens the complexions of its 
occupants by emphasizing the delicate flesh tints, 
while the second room has a suggestion of 
warmth, cheer. It would make a good dining- 
room, and is, perhaps, intended for one. Between 
the two hang silken portieres painted with lilies. 
The lilies are not painted on the silk in oils that 
are disposed to spread and look greasy around 
the edges, nor in water-color that looks weak 
and is in danger of removal in the process of 
wiping off stains with damp cloths, but in ani- 
line dyes laid on with water-color brushes, and 
instantly becoming part of the very texture of 
the fabric. This is a bold experiment, and should 
not be tried except by experienced draughtsmen 
and colorists, for a false line or a spot of false color 
is there to stay, and might spoil the entire por- 
tiere. The gold and copper used in flecking over 
the walls are merelv two shades of the common 



IVORY AND GOLD. 163 

bronze powder that is purchasable in all sorts of 
tints and is easy of application. 

Mr. Russell's decorations are a new departure, 
not toward a merely greater simplicity, but a 
higher simplicity. Our houses have become so 
"cluttered up," to use the housewife's phrase, 
and so few have the gift of massing and arrange- 
ment whereby the tone of a room is maintained, 
and not converted into discord, that this reac- 
tion toward simplicity is one that appeals to the 
best taste for countenance and support. The 
scheme of decoration adopted in the instances 
above described can be nullified by the introduc- 
tion of things that have no affinity to it in form 
or color. The delicate gold and ivory of the par- 
lor is injured by the heavy blacks and browns of 
the doors and window-casings; it can be com- 
pletely spoiled by red and green carpets, gorgeous 
Turcoman portieres, plush furniture in red and 
blue with walnut and ebony foundations, pictures 
in walnut frames or surrounded with shadow 
boxes, crazj^-quilt tidies on the chair-backs, and 
vivid cloths and scarfs for the tables. Every- 
thing in the room should be light and delicate in 
color. "Water-colors in pale gray mats and gold 
frames or white frames would be better on the 
walls than oil-paintings, unless the latter were 
represented by vaporous Corots or high-ke3 T ed 
Fortunys; furniture not of the Renaissance 
shapes, because the} T were affected and weak but 



164 DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK 

of the colors employed by upholsterers of the 
Renaissance epoch, would be more fitting" than 
objects in dark woods; the curtains should be of 
Madras, with creamy tints, rather than cold and 
starchy-looking" lace ; the rug" or carpet, while a 
little stronger suggestion of stability and sub- 
stance is permissible under foot, should be of small 
pattern- and delicate color. A room like this is 
one of the few that will bear a marble fireplace 
and mantel, though tile would serve a better pur- 
pose. Whatever bric-a-brac is distributed should 
be in pale shades of yellow or rose. A few peach- 
blow vases would not upset the color equilibrium. 
In the dining-room more positive color is not only 
admissible, but necessary, in order to match the 
browns and reds of the copper and terra-cotta 
tints. Black walnut can be endured there, but 
cherry and ripe oak are better, and more play 
and liberty can be given in the choice of pictures, 
portieres, carpets, and ornament than in the par- 
lor. There is, perhaps, in such cases a tempta- 
tion to go to excess, and to overload the apart- 
ment with objects that are of intrinsic value and 
beauty. The room bears such treatment better 
than a light one. If strong reds are introduced, 
the complexions shown against them are apt to 
suffer. " I know a house," said Mr. Russell, (i with 
a red room that gives the whole family the color 
of raw beef. They are rather highly-colored 
people— high livers, probably — and the strong- 



IVORY AND GOLD. 165 

red of the walls brings out the strong* reds of 
their cheeks, so that they look like butchers." 

C. M. Skinner. 



Dresden and Sevres.— Mr. Russell uses in his illustrations what are 
known as the fabrics of the "Associated Artists, 11 which, he naively re- 
marked, "lam proud of exhibiting as triumphs of American manufac- 
ture, and which I really consider superior to any fabrics I have ever seen 
abroad, either ancient or modern." These fabrics were designed by Mrs. 
Wheeler, of New York. 

Taking up a piece of rich brocade, a harmony in ivory and gold, with a 
suggestion of leaves and the long stems of floating lilies, Mr. Russell 
said: "Twenty years ago, this would have been made with yellow 
ground, green leaves, and white lilies— a veritable torture to the eye. 
Now, however, we have learned to use colors as we would notes in music 
— for suggestion, not literal imitation. Our room must be a harmony, not 
a botanical garden. So here we borrow but the line of the lily's stem, 
and subordinate its color to the color harmony we wish for in our cur- 
tain. Here, also, 11 remarked the gentleman, "is a piece of Dresden 
china which completely violates the principle that a decoration should 
be subordinated to the thing decorated. It belongs to what I call the 
'scrap-book ' school of art, a near relative to the crazy quilt, although it 
may be stamped with a royal monogram. The little realistic roses 
spotted around its edge are unrelated enough to the general design, and 
the pair of lovers in the centre of the plate who might be seen to smile 
sentimentally through clear jelly, would cut but a sorry figure beneath 
roast beef and gravy. My summing up of Dresden and Sevres is, Venus 
rising from the sea in a soup-plate. 11 

The Right Thing in the Right Place.— In a studio effect we may 
associate objects for mere beauty— an old rag may be kept for an effect 
of color. In a museum objects are related by their meaning or truth, 
and a mediocre work may illustrate a period. In a workshop usefulness, 
worthiness is dominant. In a home our relation is a larger one and all 
degrees are comprised. Things must be beautiful and true and good, re- 
lated to us, belonging to us, expressing us at our best— our taste and 
culture, our personal likings, our comforts and needs and not merely the 
high-tide mark of our purses.— Edmund Etissell. 



166 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 



" We cannot arrest sunsets nor carve mountains, 
but we may turn every English home, -if we 
choose, into a picture which shall be no counter- 
feit, but the true and perfect image of life in- 
deed. "—Ruskin. 

" The beautiful is the suitable.'"— Jean Frangois 
Millet. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE MAKING OF A HOME. 

Our highest art-work — "Walls or people— A dramatic 
study — The world in mourning — Picture-frames — 
Wall-paper — Decorations — Lighting, etc. 

The highest art-work of the individual is the 
making* of a home. 

What a striking* picture the people made in 
"Louis XL" as Irving' gives it, though they are 
assembled in the stone chamber of a castle. A 
few evenings after seeing this tragedy, I attended 
a reception in a New York mansion. The walls 
were covered with pictures, the rooms full of 
furniture, plush curtains, mirrors, gilt frames, 
placques, vases, statues, bronzes — everything 
speaking of commercial prosperity — wealth. Pres- 
ently the people entered — they were all in black 



THE MAKING OF A HOME. 167 

and sat round, with rigid arms and nervously- 
clutched hands. 

In the ancient time the people formed the pic- 
ture, the few decorations of the old castle offset 
them and made an effective background. 

The modern parlor gives too much ostentation 
of wealth— says simply " we have money enough 
to own all these things" — the walls form the 
picture, and the people are but some more spots 
in the general spottiness. 

The difficulty of a harmonious arrangement in- 
creases with the number of objects to be arranged 
and related. 

Art means the right thing in the right place. 
A beautiful thing is not beautiful out of place 
and proper relation. We have too much in our 
rooms. William Morris says: "Have nothing in 
your home that you do not either knoiv to be 
useful, or believe to be beautiful." Begin by tak- 
ing out those objects of indifferent use or beauty. 

Many picture frames are so gorgeous that 
they strike the eye as a blinding square of light 
and we do not see the pictures. There is too 
much gold in our rooms. Mature gives us gold 
in small quantities. 

A frame is to protect a picture and to relate it 
to the wall; the frame should not be in strong 
contrast either to j)icture or wall. Group etch- 
ings together, and put engravings in the port- 
folio. 



168 A DELSAETEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

Let a picture be suggestive and restful. Pic- 
tures that describe things or tell too much of a 
story disturb a good wall surface, as they insist 
on being examined in detail. 

Don't be in a hurry to cover your wall. 

Get a good wall first. Probably there is not a 
person present who could not improve his parlor 
by taking out half the things in it. In wall paper 
we must distinguish between a picture and a dec- 
oration. A decoration should be subordinate to 
the thing decorated. Our wall paper is but a 
background — it should be backward about com- 
ing forward. 

Scrap-book pictures — Cupids, garlands, etc. — 
are childish and out of place on a ceiling. 

Beware of things that shine. 

Lighting is an important matter. A central 
chandelier adds years of age and care to the face, 
by throwing a shadow under every line and wrin- 
kle. Besides, it merely lights the room and gives 
no dim and interesting corners. 

"Don't take anybody for authority in art," 
said Mr. Russell in conclusion. " Study principles 
instead. Don't think that because a rug or a 
vase is Oriental it must be beautiful. It is true 
that the Oriental has an instinctive sense of 
color, but even he sometimes makes bad things. 
We never do anything so w T ell as he in his best 
work, but that is no reason w T hy we should not 
apply the principle of color in judging his pro- 



THE MAKING OF A HOME. 169 

ductions. These principles I suggest to you, leav- 
ing you to apply them 3^ourselves. In decorating 
a room study, too, the people who are to live in 
it. Complexion is a legitimate study, only put 
your paint and powder on the wall." 



Art in the Kitchen.— There was once a woman who had the strongest 
faith in the value of home missions. She put a contribution for the con- 
version of the heathen in the plate at church once or twice a year. She 
belonged to several boards of ladies who managed charities, and she 
read a great deal of literature written to show just what was wrong 
with society, and just how it should be set right. But all the while, she 
confided to her husband, she was more interested in domestic missions 
than in any one of these stirrings after a general millennium, and her 
principal mission station was in her own kitchen. 

"Now, you know, 1 '' she said to that sympathetic person who used to 
listen to reports of mission work after dinner, " that there are several 
members of our board who are greatly interested in the question of im- 
proving the tenements. They are trying to get new ones built where 
there will be lace curtains and pots of geranium at the window, which 
will elevate the tenants and set a standard of beauty and cleanliness for 
them. I think it's a very good idea, and I mean to apply it in my own 
kitchen." 

In course of time there were hung at her kitchen windows little cur- 
tains of dotted muslin that could be easily washed, and though no gera- 
niums were put on the window-sill, because they would be in the way 
there, there were two pots of fresh scarlet and green in cheap swinging 
iron brackets that could be turned out of the way when the window was 
raised. Three or four small rocking-chairs that cost but little had their 
tops tied with bows of bright ribbon, and across the mantel was a strip 
of crash with a bit of outline needle-work upon it. The missionary re- 
ported that this has as good an effect in the kitchen as it possibly could 
have in tenements, that the maids had begun to pin up on the walls 
some of the prints from the magazines, and that they had bought two 
more pots of flowers and a canary. Pursuing this idea farther, the mis- 
sionary bought a book-shelf and filled it with books. 

"I observe, 1 ' said she, "that all people who follow any industry are 
supplied or supply themselves with the literature of their trade. But no 
one supplies house-:- ervants with books to tell them how to improve their 1 
service, and yet most of them know how to read." 

So she bought several cook-books, including Juliet Corson's, and books 
of advice to young housekeepers, and books that tell how to live on five 
hundred a year, and selections from the large supply of excellent matter 
that experienced housewives write for the benefit of those less experi- 



170 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



enced, and finally she subscribed to a magazine devoted to such matter. 
It was suddenly revealed to her that the mistresses had been reading 
these things all the time, while those who were in far greater need of in- 
struction never had an opportunity to improve their minds. This litera- 
ture had not the sudden success of a Virginia authoress 1 novel, but in 
course of time the gay bindings and pictures attracted attention, and 
the book-shelf got patronage. The effect was not long in appearing. 
The magazine was looked forward to and read with interest, and a thou- 
sand new suggestions as to possible ways of doing and improving their 
work were gathered and acted upon.— Harpers Bazaar. 

A vast similitude interlocks all, 

All spheres, grown, un grown, small, large 

******** 
All men and women— me also, 

All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages, 
All identities that have existed or may exist, on this globe or any globe, 
All fives and deaths— all of past, present, future, 

This vast similitude spans them, and always has spanned, and shall 
forever span them, and compactly hold them.— Walt Whitman. 



THE PEACOCK DINING-ROOM. 171 



" The masterpiece should appear as the flower 
to the painter — perfect in its bud as in its bloom, 
•with no reason to explain its presence, no mission 
to fulfil— a joy to the artist, a delusion to the 
philanthropist, a puzzle to the botanist, an acci- 
dent of sentiment and alliteration to the literary- 
man. 11 — Whistler. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PEACOCK DINING-ROOM. 

Foreign palaces and American homes — How houses 
should be decorated — The colors used should har- 
monize with the complexion of the hostess — Brie-a 
brae must be selected carefully and not merely be- 
cause it is pretty — Choosing pictures — Some famous 
rooms. 

American homes, considered from an artistic 
point of view, are superior to those of England 
and France. 

Edmund Russell, the art critic and lecturer, is 
authority for this statement. He declares that 
no matter how much we imitate English man- 
ners and customs, our homes show a higher grade 
of decorative art than those of our cousins across 
the sea. In a chat with a Mail and Express re- 
porter Mr. Russell said : 

" Nowhere is such good modern decorative art 
found as in America. The old palaces of England 



172 A DELSARTEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

with their striking* crimson curtains suspended 
from glaring- gilt cornices, their landscape car- 
pets and crimson and gold furniture, are trying 
to the eye. They are stiff and uncomfortable, but 
to change them would be considered sacrilege. In 
this country better taste is displayed in the orna- 
mentation of the home, whether it be that of the 
millionaire or of a clerk in his employ. The test 
of decorative art taste is not a house on Fifth 
Avenue, but that of the average resident. Wher- 
ever you go in America you will see evidences of 
good art taste. In a street-car your eye will fall 
upon a silver-handled umbrella, or a Japanese 
leather pocketbook that harmonizes with the 
owner's costume. 

" The show-windows and ceilings of our barber- 
shops, cigar stores, and drinking-saloons even 
display excellent taste. The entrance to some 
of our office buildings and apartment houses are 
finer than those of many of the palaces of the 
Old World. Yet, while we have made great 
progress, there is still much to learn." 

" Is there not much poor taste used in furnish- 
ing houses ? " 

" Yes. Many people's rooms are a collection of 
unrelated objects. They see an article of furni- 
ture, a beautiful vase or a picture that looks w T ell 
in a shop-window, and they order it sent home 
without any regard for the place it is to occupy 
or the effect it will produce. The main thing in 



THE PEACOCK DINING-ROOM. 173 

the decoration and arrangement of a room is 
harmony. There should be harmony of design as 
well as harmony of color. As an example of 
what may be done I will instance a room that 
Whistler did in Leyland House, at Queen's Gate, 
South Kensington, for which he received $20,000. 
It is known as the ' peacock dining-room/ and 
you sometimes hear it spoken of as the room in 
which two peacocks have had a fight. It is one 
of the most wonderful pieces of decoration I have 
ever seen, and is a strong illustration of Whist- 
ler's versatility and power. The room is remark- 
able for the manner in which it shows the magnifi- 
cent collection of ceramics belonging to the master 
of the house. It is exceedingly difficult to arrange 
a collection so that the general effect is good. 
Either the owner is an enthusiast on one kind of 
art, and keeps on collecting until he turns his 
house into a museum, or the different pieces have 
no relation to each other, and the effect of the 
whole is inharmonious. 

" Whistler covered one whole side of the pea- 
cock dining-room with cabinet work, forming 
niches and recesses for the beautiful specimens of 
blue and white Nankin china. The woodwork 
was ornamented with Japanese carving and col- 
ored a greenish-bronze. Each niche is archi- 
tecturally designed to suit the shape of the piece 
of china intended for it. The lines of the carving 
harmonize with the general design of the room, 



174 A DELSARTEAjS" SCRAP-BOOK. 

and the collection of china, softened by "being half 
in shadow, becomes subordinate and does not 
obtrude itself as a series of blue and white spots. 

" The walls of the room were originally covered 
with magnificent antique Cordova leather, pre- 
cious and rare ; but Whistler dared to subordinate 
even this to the general scheme of color. While 
many London artists wrung their hands with 
horror, Whistler painted the Cordova hangings 
a dull greenish-blue, with here and there a scale- 
like conventionalization in greenish-bronze of 
overlapping peacock feathers. The general har- 
mony of the room is of a greenish-bronze and 
peacock blue. 

"All the woodwork is in greenish-bronze, the 
panels occasionally marked with a conventional- 
ization of peacock feathers. The entire w T all space 
of one side of the room has a Japanesque decora- 
tion of two peacocks in outline. The whole is 
done with that masterly stroke of Whistler's, 
suggesting so much force, boldness, and enthusi- 
asm, and yet calculated with so much study and 
patience. 

" It is a mistaken idea that Whistler is a quick 
painter. He thinks and studies a great deal 
before every brush-mark, but the stroke itself is 
made with great dexterity. The ceiling of the 
room is a marvel. It was shaped like a water- 
spout and carved in whorls of peacock's feathers, 
terminating in Oriental lamps of iridescent glass." 



THE PEACOCK DIJSTIKGr-ROOM. 175 

" What is the most important thing- in house 
decoration ? " 

"A room should be conceived as a piece of 
music is — in a certain key. There should be sym- 
phony and harmony. Pictures should be consid- 
ered with as much regard to their surroundings 
as to their individual merits. In selecting the 
prevailing color of a room the complexion of the 
lady of the house should be taken into account. 
So important is the effect of color upon a person's 
appearance that every change of color changes 
not only the color of the skin, but that of the hair 
and the eye as well. I have seen a red back- 
ground of a dining-room which made host and 
hostess look the hue of a boiled lobster, while 
delicate grays, greens, and blues will give a fragile 
person almost a corpse-like expression. 

" To show how a room may be studied in rela- 
tion to the persons who inhabit it, I will speak of 
a drawing-room which I once decorated for a 
lady. I studied the general tone of complexions, 
then mixed my wall color to a similar tone, bat 
made it dirtier and grayer, so that when one 
stood near the skin looked clear and fresh beside 
it. I made the tone a little greener and colder 
than flesh, so that one looked lighter and 
warmer and was enriched by the contrast. 
Any one who stood in front of that wall looked 
five or ten years younger than they were. At a 
reception which was given after the room was 



17o A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

opened, every one remarked what a beautiful 
complexion the hostess had. 

"In a room for a reception the walls should be 
considered merely as a background for the guests, 
who themselves are the ornaments of the room. 
The beautiful blonde leaning against a golden 
wall, or the brunette standing in the shadow be- 
fore it, are the pictures. The walls should not be 
broken by collections of placques, bric-a-brac, or 
mirrors to distract the attention. 

"The floors of rooms should carry out the gen- 
eral harmony. Conventional designs only can be 
tolerated in carpets. In decorating a room it is 
usual to begin with a dark floor and to make the 
walls lighter as we approach the ceiling. The 
arrangement of the door, the mantel, and the sofa 
are the dramatic effects of the room. The man- 
telpiece, with the fire as its central object, the 
door where we welcome our guests, and the sofa 
where we entertain them, should have the richest 
effects concentrated." 

" How about lighting the room ? " 

"Our strongest fight is against the central 
chandelier. It fills so much space, detracts from 
the height and dignity of the room, and casts 
downward shadows which make people look hol- 
low-eyed and wrinkled, and add years to a per- 
son's age. Lighting should be from the sides of 
the room, but the lights should not be in spots 
or at variance in color. The millinery effect of 



THE PEACOCK DI^I^G-ROOM. 177 

laces, flowers, and ribbons on the lamps should be 
avoided. Soft low lights on the dining-table 
should be used to counteract the downward 
shadows. Rose and pink shades give pretty ef- 
fects, and are ornamental as well." 

J. F. Clark. 



"All his theories are eminently practical, and are not intended for 
women who can squander thousands in the gratification of whims, artis- 
tic or otherwise. 

The underlying principle of his philosophy is appropriateness. He 
does not think that taste and beauty can be evolved from money alone. 
With a judicious exercise of brains and taste satisfactory results may be 
had where the means are very limited. He believes that a small and 
inexpensive house may be the house beautiful ; and that inexpensive 
material may be combined in costumes beautiful, fit, and becoming. He 
is the avowed enemy of the advocate of style ; of conventional upholster- 
ers and decorators; of men who insist upon selling you the 'latest' de- 
signs in hangings, wall paper, and carpets. His counsel every time, and 
all the time, is, exercise your own judgment; think for yourself and do 
not be influenced by people who assume to know, while in reality they 
are ignorant of the simplest rules of art. 

He has a profound contempt for things that simply proclaim their 
cost— big diamonds, thick silks that are only costly, and for all the articles 
of personal wear or household belongings that are constantly ticketing 
themselves, when you step into a drawing-room, like the bric-a-brac on a 
' bargain ' counter in a shop. 11 — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

Byron's Coronet.— Not very long ago a party of distinguished English 
visitors were being entertained at a dinner party by Mr. George W. 
Childs, the millionaire proprietor of the Philadelphia Ledger. Noticing 
that one of the guests was looking somewhat intently at a peculiarly 
shaped dish-holder at one end of the table, the host genially remarked : 

" Isn't that a curious bit of plate ? Do you know what it is ? Well, it 
is the baron's silver coronet which the poet Lord Byron wore at the cor- 
onation of George IV. I have had the velvet cap removed, and, by turn- 
ing it upside down, have converted it into a dish -holder ! " 

The feelings of the English guests present may be easily imagined at 
seeing mashed potatoes steaming in the silver head-gear of England's 
renowned poet. 
12 



178 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



" This simple law of relation, applied to decora- 
tion, illuminates criticism, and will help much 
toward the proper making of a home." — Decora- 
tor and Furnisher, New York. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

HINTS ON ARTISTIC DINNER-TABLES. 

Color in table decoration — An effective scheme — How to 
plan an arrangement of color — A red luncheon — 
Sevres and Dresden— A bachelor and his brocades — 
A new sandwich — Some noted dining-rooms. 

"All I have said of color in dress and house 
decoration applies to the table. Any scheme of 
color may be employed, but it must be well car- 
ried out. A table is too often only a confusion of 
spots. It is extremely difficult to arrange, espe- 
cially for a dinner, on account of changing- courses 
that make it hard to find appropriate colors for 
the dishes served. A luncheon is much easier to 
manage, because the menu is more restricted. A 
simple color scheme such as white, yellow, or pale 
gTeen is easiest to carry out, but whatever color 
is taken as a keynote should be carried out in 
every detail. 

" Suppose we start with amber and white or 
with green and white, something that will readily 



HINTS ON ARTISTIC DINNER-TABLES. 179 

harmonize with celery, salads, ices, and such 
other articles of food as are needed at lunches. 
This will be a safe beginning-, for while we can 
arrange a side table with a profusion of colors, a 
Rubens-like richness of tint, it is much easier to 
carry a simpler scheme through a whole meal. 
Starting with amber and white, I would choose a 
white with a yellowish or a greenish cast, not a 
chalky white that is dull and dead, and will not 
melt into any harmony. Remember that a study 
in white is quite a different thing from mere ab- 
sence of color. White is the combination of all 
colors and is therefore the most spiritual. But 
our highest conception of white is not a mere 
mathematical mixture of red, yellow, and blue; 
matter, soul, and mind. That seems like a nega- 
tion. But let the spiritual yellow slightly pre- 
dominate and we have a luminous white, a white 
full of life and light such as we think the angels 
wear. This white is full of sunshine, harmonizes 
with our amber tints, and can be followed up even 
into the darkest bronze. This is the white that I 
would choose. Then I would have amber glasses, 
linen of creamy brown, while all the tints from 
white to bronze would offer ample scope for choice 
of other dishes and viands. Apricots could be 
heaped in an amber dish, ices could be tinted in 
harmony, and in the centre could be placed a 
great mass of white roses. Green and white 
could be worked up in the same fashion. Indeed, 



180 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

there is no color that cannot he taken as a key- 
note for our scheme, hut I would avoid crude, 
aggressive tints, for they are harder to manage 
and produce less pleasing effects." 

Mr. Russell, who, "by the way, is most fertile 
in illustration, finding examples of art principles 
in 'everything 1 ahout him, frequently called atten- 
tion to places and things by way of enforcing his 
theories. "Apropos of my remarks on white," 
said he in one of these interesting digressions, 
" I may refer to the dining-room of Oscar Wilde 
— that is a study in white. It is a beautiful room, 
in the most delicate possible tones — pale yellow, 
pale green, opal, and amber, the general effect 
being of white, with only a suggestion of the 
colors that have united to make it. 

"A charming effect may be obtained by doing* 
away with the cloth and allowing- the table to 
become the keynote of our color study. An oak 
table with its rich yellows and browns, in which 
there lurks a suggestion of green, would afford 
an easy and charming color scheme with which 
our amber, bronze, and yellow would be in per- 
fect harmony. I remember a delightful red lunch- 
eon given by Mrs. De F , of London, in honor 

of Karl Formes during his last London visit. The 
dining-room was in dark red and carved black 
oak, its red walls strewn over with a suggestion 
of lotus leaves and flowers in dull bronze. There 
was no cover on the red mahogany table that 



HINTS ON AETISTIC DINNER-TABLES. 181 

was adorned in the centre by a great bank of 
English wall-flowers, so arranged that their 
stems and leaves were entirely concealed, while 
their copper and orange tones touched and 
blended into the dull red of the table. The menu 
consisted of tomato soup served in Kaga plates, 
red mullets, and pates in great red Japanese 
dishes representing fish and animals. All the 
dishes were a study of harmony in color, from the 
red-brown ducks served on earthen platters to 
piles of red jelly and crystallized fruits. Strange 
bronze spoons and curious objects of red enamel 
from different lands aided the general color har- 
mony while adding interest by their curious work- 
manship. The hostess and her beautiful daugh- 
ter were attired in red, the mother wearing 
garnet ornaments and the daughter strange Ori- 
ental beads that exactly harmonized with the 
color scheme of the room. 

"A point to be remembered," insisted Mr. Rus- 
sell, "is that matching a color is not a study in 
color. Nothing but a monotony can result from 
the continued use of one tone. It is all a ques- 
tion of harmony. Much as I dislike Sevres and 
Dresden china, which I characterize as 'Venus 
rising from a soup-plate/ I was recently at a din- 
ner where it was used with charming effect. 
There were great Dresden candelabra garlanded 
with roses and supported by Cupids. The cloth 
was sprinkled over with roses embroidered in 



182 A DELSARTEA1ST SCEAP-BOOK. 

exactly the tones of the garlands above, while in 
the centre stood a great cut-glass bowl contain- 
ing a mass of hyacinths that fell in profusion 
over its sides, almost touching and mingling with 
the flesh of the Cupids that showed exactly the 
same tone. The effect was beautiful because it 
was a harmon}'." 

Speaking of brocades in table decoration the 
artist said : "All must depend upon the way they 
are subordinated to the general color scheme. 
They often help to unite flowers or other orna- 
mental objects with neighboring articles, and 
are equally useful as a means of separating 
coarser dishes, such as meats, from those delicate 
ornaments of the table that would seem incon- 
gruous in close proximity. The prettiest use I 
have ever seen made of brocade was at a recep- 
tion given by a bachelor lawyer in the Temple, on 
Fleet Street. He is a great connoisseur and col- 
lector of rare and antique objects. The table 
w T as set back against the wall and covered with 
long, parallel strips of brocade of different kinds, 
each tone, however, harmonizing with its neigh- 
bor and with the kind of china laid upon it. Be- 
neath his pale Sevres china with Watteau figures 
and jewelled medallions lay a strip of delicate 
blue brocaded with dainty Renaissance garlands 
and ribbons. His massive gold Dresden covered 
a piece of rich church embroidery heavy with 
gold and splendid in texture; while his old Chi- 



HINTS ON ARTISTIC DINNER-TABLES. 183 

nese blue, Satsuma, his capo de monte and Gubbio 
majolica each reposed upon a bit of texture ex- 
actly harmonizing with their scheme of color. 
This is the only instance I have ever seen of many 
different colors and kinds of china being" well ar- 
ranged upon a table. The refreshments there 
were mostly of the order of small cakes and sand- 
wiches, relieved by many different kinds of punch 
in antique jars and flagons. 

" By the way, the English have a great many 
different kinds of sandwiches at their numerous 
afternoon teas and receptions, where they have 
the good taste to serve simple refreshments. No- 
bod}^ need avoid giving receptions there because 
of their cost, for it would be quite proper to re- 
ceive the best people in London with only but- 
tered bread and tea for a collation. Their sand- 
wiches are so numerous in kind that they are 
often labelled with a card that tells what they are. 
A very simple kind that I think is almost un- 
known here is the cress sandwich, which is made 
of wafer-like slices of brown bread spread with 
unsalted butter and the most delicate water-cress 
laid between. 

" Mrs. Felix Moscheles, of London, has a remark- 
able table-cloth that is well worth description. It 
is composed of bits of old German embroidery on 
white linen, the pieces being of irregular size, 
fastened together by old lace insertion. Some of 
them are many centuries old. The Moscheles 



184 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP BOOK. 

dining-room opens from the studio, and when 
not in use the table is usually covered with sev- 
eral large jars of blossoming plants — azaleas in 
bloom, rhododendrons, or jars of lilies — while the 
light comes from the side through a large win- 
dow of opalescent glass and Mexican onyx. 

" Holman Hunt's table is at the end of a long 
dining-room, and is set on an elevation of one 
step, making it almost mediaeval in its expression. 
At parties and receptions Mrs. Hunt is noted for 
strange old English dishes, the recipes of which 
she searches for in old manuscripts at the British 
Museum. 

" Mme. Blavatsky has the most hospitable house 
in London. Although the Countess Wachtmeis- 
ter, with whom she lives, has a small family, the 
table, which can accommodate twenty, is always 
spread for that number, and nothing is more 
pleasant than to have a standing invitation to 
the vegetarian suppers of that occult household. 
The dishes are so varied, so quaint in their com- 
bination, and so delicious in flavor that one rises 
without realizing that he has partaken of a veg- 
etarian meal." 

Maya. 



Dr. Densmobe 1 s Diet. — We maintain that the food of primeval man 
consisted of fruit and nuts of sub-tropical climes, spontaneously pro- 
duced ; that on these foods man was (and may again become) at least as 
free from disease as the animals are in a state of nature. Physiologists 
unite in teaching that these foods are adapted to digestion in the main 
stomach, where, surely, the great bulk of our food should be digested ; 



HIXTS OX ARTISTIC DIXNER-TABLES. 185 



whereas cereals, pulses, bread, and, in fact, all starch foods, are chiefly 
digested in the intestines, and hence, it is maintained, are unnatural and 
disease-inducing foods, being the cause of the nervous prostration and 
broken-down health that abound on all sides. 

Since nuts and fruits — especially the former— are not usually obtaina- 
ble in right varieties and conditions, and as most people have weak 
powers of digestion and assimilation and are obliged to perform more 
work than is natural or heathful, it is recommended that milk, cheese, 
and eggs— and, to those not vegetarians, fish, flesh, and fowl— be liber- 
ally used as supplemental to the fruit diet. These animal products are 
" natural " only in the sense that they are suitable for digestion in the 
first stomach, and are free from the objections urged against bread and 
other cereal and starch foods. 

We urge that all the fruits in their season— and including dried dates, 
figs, prunes, raisins, and apples, each of many varieties— be substituted 
for bread and other grain foods and starchy vegetables. This course will 
be found by experiment highly beneficial alike to the meat-eater and to 
the vegetarian. 

Aside from the question of health, there are other considerations that 
urge the substitution of fruit for bread and starchy vegetables. Usually 
fruit is reserved until the last course ; by that time most people have 
always eaten to repletion, and fruit is disregarded and neglected. To 
such an extent is this true that Professor Huxley, in his " Lessons in Ele- 
mentary Physiology,' 7 one of the most popular science test-books, makes 
no mention of fruit in enumerating the food-stuffs of the race. 

"When this food comes to be regarded as an indispensable and one of 
the principal factors of alimentation, our dining-rooms will, in e very-day 
life, bear some resemblance to the pictures artists so universally delight 
iu providing for their decoration ; and an abundance of fruit— with its 
fine form and beautiful colors— furnish the artist with boundless re- 
sources for ornamentation ; the aesthetic and higher nature is stimulated ; 
and we are better able to appreciate that " a thing of beauty is a joy for- 
ever."— Emmet Densmore, M.D., in " Natural Food." 

An eccentric New Yorker, much given to hospitality, has concealed 
among the flowers on his dinner-table an artificial mocking-bird, which, 
at the pressure of an electric wire by his foot, flutters and gives a musi- 
•cal chirp. Strangers are amused by the ingenious toy, but his family 
and friends understand that the bird only flies and sings when a subject 
is broached which is likely to prove offensive or painful to one of the 
guests. A Russian boyar, in the days of Catherine, carried out a similar 
conceit by a rougher method. "When Demetri Paulovski," says tradi- 
tion, " sat down to dine a trumpeter stood beside him with his eyes fixed 
upon him. If any one at the table made a remark disagreeable to the 
prince the trumpeter, at a signal from him, sounded a warning note and 
the guest remained silent during the meal. If the offence was repeated 
the trumpet sounded twice and the guest was led from the table and his 
tongue cut out." 



186 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



" Delsarte's theory was the production of perfect 
animal grace by education, the equal develop- 
ment of all the muscles, and the rhythmic action 
of different parts as in a symphony where the 
final meeting of the whole is one grand har- 
mony. 11 — New York Theatre Magazine. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

ARTISTIC LOVE-MAKING. 

Man's three languages — Gesture speaks louder than 
words — "Words are the least part of language as 
far as utterance is concerned " — The child, the cat, 
and the lover. 

There are no books written about it — tradi- 
tion is all. Yet are not the voice and the tone 
more powerful than the volume ? There are 
many books filled with facts about art, but the 
truths concerning- it are yet to be written. The 
date of such a work or the birth of such a master 
are facts that we may learn or not, but the rela- 
tion of the work to us and to the ag-es are truths 
which more nearly concern us. 

In this encampment in the pine grove, within 
sound of the sea, Mrs. Russell is teaching her 
pupils the art of expression, that the soul may 
properly represent itself by the movements of 



ARTISTIC LOVE-MAKING. 187 

the body. Man speaks with three tongues — the 
word, the tone, and the gesture. The word is 
least expressive and last to be trusted in this 
trinity. 

Every movement a man makes is a betrayal of 
his character, an unconscious escape of the condi- 
tion of his inner life. There is a revelation in the 
curl of the lip, the toss of the head, and move- 
ments jerky, impatient, passionate, or deliberate 
have a language that he who runs may read. 

The gymnastics taught in our schools are in 
the direction of lines and angles — quick, fragmen- 
tary movements — by which certain muscles are 
developed and certain feelings aroused, the result 
of which is to teach men, not harmony and rela- 
tion, but how to punch each other's heads. 

Mrs. Russell says : " The principles of gymnas- 
tics taught by Delsarte obey not only the laws of 
rhythm of the body itself, but other important 
physical and physiological laws." 

I quote from her " Notes on the New Educa- 
tion " to show you more of this system : 

" No words ever tell, perhaps, how a straight- 
line motion or a simple curve, thab is, one having 
but one radius, expresses force, fact, antagonism, 
or hate, while the beautiful curves, or high har- 
mony of straight lines, talk of love, beauty, sym- 
pathy, and goodness. In any parlor, or school, or 
street, observe the class of motions habitually 
used, and see how the worst betray and the best 



188 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

misrepresent themselves. Then see how Del- 
sarte's laws of motion are illustrated by the great 
actor or orator, by the healthy, playful, well- 
born child, by the kitten on the lawn, by a lover 
when he has for one supreme hour of his life for- 
gotten self and all unmannerly and selfish repres- 
sions, when once at least the best and purest emo- 
tions of the soul have command of him — see how 
winning" he has become, see how all his being*, 
fused for this one moment into unity, has forgot- 
ten its angles and its angularity, as we say — for 
straight lines can only join at angles. It is curves 
that soar and wed each other, through new and 
even more beautiful curves, created by them- 
selves. Admire him, as each of us has done for 
once, at least, in our lives, and then wish, as we 
all have wished, that life were all love and beauty 
and sympathy and harmony. Wish that this 
conqueror, so grand at his best, might always 
be at his best. 

" What have we said ? Why, we have wished 
that a man might be always eloquently and sin- 
cerely expressive of the best of himself, instead of 
his worst and commonest. Why not? Why 
not, indeed ? Simply because he cannot. Because 
he is not the godlike man who in future may in- 
herit the earth. Because he is not educated in 
the use of his bodily powers. Because, save 
when moved by 'the miracle/ he is nearly dumb. 
True, that wonderful muscle, the tongue, does 



ARTISTIC LOVE-MAKING. 189 

talk a little, but where is the symphony that once 
did and always should issue from his throat? 
Where the intoxicating- grace of motion ? It is 
not his; he is motionally mute. He feels, but he 
cannot express his feeling. Soon we shall find 
it hard to believe he can feel so much of what is 
holy. Soon, looking* into our unbelieving 1 , unan- 
swering eyes, he will almost disbelieve in himself. 
The new education seeks to develop the outer 
talk, the gesture, and tone-language into some- 
thing like correspondence with the moods of the 
man." 

Never have I found a more beautiful embodi- 
ment of the system she represents than the writer 
of these graceful lines. 

I hereby publicly announce myself an advocate 
of that system which teaches men to make love 
to us all our days in the most graceful manner 
imaginable. Alas! dear lady, you are teaching 
the science of expression, while all circumstances, 
all creatures, are teaching the art of repression, 
forcing the soul back upon itself and limiting its 
powers. If there be a way to change the cur- 
rent, give it to us by all means, and God speed 
you. 

Lizzie York Case. 



Body ajtd Spirit.— That the condition of the body has much to do 
with the possibilities of the free expression of the spirit— as the musical 
instalment has to do with the power of the perf ormer to express the har- 
mony that is within him— is very true. Beethoven could not have made 



190 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



harmony on an untuned and unstrung instrument. Just so the spirit 
struggles when out of correspondence with its environment. When the 
nervous system, with its finely-strung ganglionic centres radiating 
strength and vitality, unable to meet the demands made upon it through 
lethargy, pain, and weakness, is broken down through disobedience of 
Nature's laws, the spirit is only crippled in its power to express itself, 
but it is in no way affected in its nature or power. Sojt seems to me plain 
that the more physiologically we live, the more perfectly we build this 
material temple, the more easily the spirit can shine through, revealing 
its nature, which is always the same.— Dr. Helen Densmore. 

Schiller upon the ^Esthetic Education op Man.— I do not overlook 
the advantages to which the present race, regarded as a unity and in the 
balance of the understanding, may lay claim over what is best in the 
ancient world ; but it is obliged to engage in the contest as a compact 
mass, and measure itself as a whole against a whole. Who among the 
moderns could step forth, man against man, and strive with an Athenian 
for the prize of higher humanity ? Whence comes this disadvantageous 
relation of individuals coupled with great advantages of the race ? Why 
could the individual Greek be qualified as the type of his time, and why 
can no modern dare to offer himself as such ? 

Man is all symmetric- 
Full of proportions, one limb to another, 

And all to all the world besides. 
Each part may call the farthest brother. 

— George Herbert. 



'the cause for divorce." 191 



"Without the great arts which speak to the 
sense of beauty, man seems to me a poor, naked, 
shivering creature.'"— Emerson. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

"THE CAUSE FOR DIVORCE." 

A new theory — An Indian poem — The effect of a starch 
diet — A transformation scene. 

A prince of Delhi told me the secret. One 
morning- when he had finished his lesson he said : 
"You have often asked to see my Indian gar- 
ments and jewels. To-morrow I receive a jar of 
sweetmeats from India. Come and eat preserved 
mangoes with me." He was dressed in black 
modern clothes, "tailor-made/' patent leather 
boots squeezed his little feet, the highest of high 
collars scratched his sensitive jaw and bound his 
supple neck. He seemed awkward, uncomforta- 
ble, and inexpressive in spite of his general roman- 
tic type. Putting on a black overcoat and a 
stovepipe hat he bade me £-ood-morning. He 
reminded me of a poem by Edwin Arnold in a 
crape-hung laundry. 

The next day at three I lifted the heavy knocker 



192 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

of a house in one of the fashionable London 
squares. 

" My master," said the little Oriental boy in 
semi-demi of English clothes and turbaned head, 
" will soon be with you." 

A Benares brass vase with the usual handles 
of curling- serpents, and a marked copy of Mat- 
thius' Mull's " Notes on Hamlet " lay on a table. 
As I turned the leaves of the latter, through the 
open door I saw a figure glide down the stairs 
like a poem — " The Light of Asia " bound in gold, 
and this time without starch. He was not human 
as I had known human beings. He was certainly 
not divine. He had simply the natural animal 
grace which should belong to all men, was clothed 
in beauty and no starch. 

He wore a choja of black satin, a garment sim- 
ilar to that worn by Salvini in " Othello " (choja 
being the word from which toga was derived). 
It was heavily bordered with gold embroidery 
and studded all over with a conventionalization 
like the Napoleon bee. The work increased in 
richness toward the top till the neck and sleeves 
were simply incrusted with gold, the design on 
the shoulder being a conventionalized betel-leaf. 
The under vest was of gold brocade, and while 
the inner garments decreased in richness of exe- 
cution, they increased in richness of color. The 
pointed shoes were embroidered with gold and 
gleaming with jewels. The turban was wrapped 



"the cause for divorce." 193 

around a stiffly-embroidered gold-pointed cap. 
These turbans are of the finest muslin and many 
of them more than ten yards in length. 

But it was not the clothes. It was the com- 
plete transformation of the man that amazed me. 
The little, uncomfortable, constrained imitation 
of an Englishman was gone. This lithe body was 
eloquent and elegant in its freedom of motion. 
His skin was like the finest bronze — like the leaf 
of the withered forest magnolia; his eyes gleamed 
like a tiger in the jungle; his nose was of the 
sensitive, secretive Egyptian type; his lips had 
that peculiar bruised look which is more fascinat- 
ing than the most sculpturesque chisel. 

" Yes/' he said, " Delhi sets the fashion for all 
India." 

Speaking later of our social customs, he told 
me, " I do not like the English ladies." 

"And why ? " I asked. 

" Because they do not obey their husbands. In 
India we have no divorce. We have not the 
cause for divorce." 

" What is the cause for divorce ? " I inquired 
with interest. 

He cast his black eyes upward and smiled a 
little; then, after a pause, said, "Shopping." . . . 

Edmund Russell. 



Flower Worship.— " A true Persian inflowing robes of blue, and on 
his head a sheepskin hat— black, glossy, curly, the fleece of Kar-Kal— 
would saunter in and stand and meditate over every flower he saw and 

13 



194 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



always as if half in vision. And when the vision was fulfilled and the 
ideal flower he was seeking found, he would spread his mat and sit 
before it until the setting of the sun, and then pray before it, and then 
fold up his mat again and go home. And the next night, and night after 
night until that particular flower faded away, he would return to it and 
bring his friends in ever-increasing troops to it, and sit and play the 
guitar or lute before it, and they would all together pray there, and after 
prayer still sit before it sipping sherbet and talking the most hilarious 
and shocking scandal late into the moonlight, and so again and again 
every evening until the flower died. Sometimes, by way of a grand 
final, the whole company would suddenly arise before the flower aud 
serenade it together with an ode from Hafiz and depart. " 

Notes from Thoreau.— I see indistinctly oxen asleep in the fields, 
silent in majestic slumber, reclining, statuesque, Egyptian, like the 
sphinx. What solid rest ! How their heads are supported ! 

Not by constraint or severity shall you have access to true wisdom, 
but by abandonment and childlike mirthfulness. If you would know 
aught be gay before it. 

The best poetry has never been written, for when it might have been 
the poet forgot it, and when it was too late, remembered it. 

Visited my night-hawk on her nest. Could hardly believe my eyes 
when I stood within seven feet and beheld her sitting on her eggs, her 
head toward me ; she looked so Saturnian, so one with the earth, so 
sphinx-like. It was enough to fill one with awe. The sight of this crea- 
ture impressed me with the venerableness of the globe. All the while 
this seemingly sleeping bronze sphinx, as motionless as the earth, was 
watching me with intense anxiety through those narrow slits in its eye- 
lids. 

When to-day I saw the ''Great Ball 1 ' rolled majestically along.it 
seemed a shame that man could not move like it. All dignity and grand- 
eur has something of the undulatoriness of the sphere. It is the secret of 
majesty in the rolling gait of the elephant and of all grace in action and 
in art. The line of beauty is a curve. 



in London town. 195 



" Mrs. Russell cannot bear the idea of a cold 
shoulder, but she is never likely to get it."— London 
Punch. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

IN LONDON TOWN. 

Pen sketch of Mrs. Edmund Russell and her recep- 
tions — A dream of a midsummer night in London — 
A Bayswater shrine — The countess and the Egyptol- 
ogist — The violin-girl — A cosmopolitan gathering. 

Now that Milwaukee is talking itself blue about 
Mr. Edmund Russell and the Delsartean lectures 
he will deliver next week, it might interest a lot 
of people to know a little about Mrs. Russell, who 
is as talented as her husband, and is at this mo- 
ment fulfilling engagements to lecture on Delsar- 
tean matters before society circles in New York. 

She resided in London last summer, during the 
absence of her husband, at the residence of a 
friend, where all the decorations are effected on 
the correct Delsartean plan, and pictures find no 
place on the pinkish terra-cotta walls of the re- 
ception-rooms, and everybody knows that corsets 
ought never to be worn, no matter v/hether they 
do wear them or not. At this establishment, 
Grove House, Mrs. Russell, with Mrs. and Miss Q., 



196 A DELSAKTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

was at home every Monday evening; and at these 
Monday evening" receptions people used to meet 
all the persons who were anybodies in the great 
metropolis. It would be difficult to describe ex- 
actly what these informal at-homes really were; 
they were more like condensed conversaziones 
than anything else one can imagine; and though 
the queen's English was the language which most 
generally obtained there, it was just as well for 
the visitor to know a smattering of French, Ital- 
ian, Chinese, Hindustani, and Spanish, not to men- 
tion half a dozen less important tongues, if he 
really wished to keep au fait with all that was 
being spoken around him. 

For people used to gather there from all sorts 
of out-of-the-way places, and in the easy free- 
dom of cosmopolitanism, used to come in the 
garbs which obtained in their respective native 
countries. The pale, pinkish terra-cotta recep- 
tion-room on this account resembled a kaleido- 
scope on these occasions. Grave, sentimental- 
looking students from India moved noiselessly to 
and fro in the brilliant, clinging cerements of the 
East; intelligent but yellow Celestials from the 
Chinese embassy sat around in silks and satins 
and chunlpy shoes and talked diplomacy or tea- 
raising to dames of the barbarian world, in mo- 
notonous accents suggestive of the pigeon tongue 
of laundrymen in this further Western continent. 
Then there was lad v so-and-so and the comtesse 



IN LONDON TOWN. 197 

de somewhere or another — the name was a corker 
and does not matter anyhow. She was a woman 
— a big- woman rather past middle age — and aw- 
fully wise and clever, and a charming- conversa- 
tionalist who had reduced the art of flattery, 
through listening well, to a science. 

A French prince, too, used to frequently drop 
in, a Bonaparte with literary tendencies and black 
eyes, and then there was any amount more of lite 
erary people, semi-literary people, peculiar people, 
and people of the Bohemian set of the world of 
fashion, which comprises ninety per cent of all 
the better known authors, artists, poets, singers, 
painters, and actors of London. 

It was ever so easy to feel at home there, for 
in mixed assemblies one finds kindred spirits with- 
out difficulty, and Mrs. Russell had a knack of 
bringing a couple together and chatting with the 
pair for a couple of minutes and then disappear- 
ing without letting one feel it, and the couple 
would be left together with an impression that 
they had known each other from infancy up. 

Miss G. was a bit of an invalid, and could not 
get up and move around like other people with- 
out over-exerting herself, yet she managed to do 
a good deal of entertaining. A slight, delicate 
girl with acres of blonde hair and blue eyes to 
match, she just sat around in her loose-flowing 
attire and talked and chatted and always man- 
aged to keep a crowd at her side. But Mrs. Rus- 



iy» A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

sell seemed to be everywhere. She was generally 
dressed in a sort of an old-gold-colored plush 
gown, of which bodice and skirt showed no divid- 
ing line. Low in stature, her figure was perfect, 
though perhaps not so squeezed at the waist as 
that of some pretty women one sees. No one 
would have dreamt that she wore no corsets, but 
she did not; a woman or an expert would have 
detected that fact when, later on in the evening, 
she commenced her little impromptu chat about 
Delsartean matters, which she always delivered 
in a charming informal way that held the atten- 
tion of everybody. 

One remembers as if it were yesterday how 
she used to stand there in the centre of the room 
and explain matters with an easy flexibility, as 
it were, which twisted itself around the compre- 
hension of even the most obtuse; the light would 
sparkle on the gold embroidery of her gown now 
and then, and all the time it would sparkle in her 
eyes; for she had more or less the gift of speak- 
ing with her eyes, though whether it was a nat- 
ural one or donated by Delsarte one may not 
say. Anyhow it was all attentiveness when she 
spoke. The big, black eyes of the Indian pupils, 
sons of princes and rajahs of the East, followed 
her every gesture, the oblique eyes of the China- 
men did likewise, and so did the black orbs of 
the prince and the expressive eyes of Mine, la 
Comtesse. Of course there were some who al- 



IN LONDON TOWN. 199 

lowed their attention to divert to other things — 
some who saw something more attractive than 
Delsartean philosophy in other parts of the room. 
If one is near a person he or she thinks the love- 
liest and the best on earth, you cannot make him 
watch the sinuous gestures of Delsartean elocu- 
tion, be they never so beautiful. 

Count how many pairs of eyes are looking at 
the dark red frock over this side of the room 
every now and then. It is a very pretty red 
frock — velvet, one would say — of easy assthetical 
cut. She is very young and wears her masses 
of dark brown hair down over her shoulders, and 
her eyes are big and dark, and her face more like 
the face of a woman in expression than that of a 
girl in the middle of her teens. You have seen 
that face and those eyes before, and those long, 
dark tresses; but where the dickens was it? 
Oh, yes, to be sure — Skip worth's pastel at the 
Grosvenor Gallery. It must be the same; she 
must be the original. Was she ? one whispers 
as the applause at the close of Mrs. Russell's 
address dies away. "Yes," she answers, and 
then one begins to remember the name which no 
one ever dreams of catching during the ceremony 
of an introduction. She is Miss De F., one of the 
cleverest as well as one of the prettiest girls in 
town. A charming elocutionist, a divine player, 
one who can make the violin talk like her eyes. 
The address being over, one chats along about 



200 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

matters of the day and other matters affecting' 
none save the speaker and his vis-a-vis. One 
jumps from that insufferable shah to Schubert's 
Ave Maria and so on to other thing's, and the 
people about one do just the same in different 
chords to suit their own sympathies. That soft- 
voiced young man over there with the handsome 
woman in non-Delsartean black is probably a 
poet retailing some of his rejected rhymes, one 
presumes, but is wrong. He is not a poet; he is 
a writer of fast novels and stories. " Tant mieux," 
sagely reflects the tenor to whom this piece of 
information is imparted by a thin-faced, blue-eyed 
Irish woman, who writes books and stories, too, 
" Tant mieux, their conversation shall be all the 
more interesting." 

As he speaks he smiles divinely. All tenors 
wear divine smiles; and the old Chinese diplomat 
beside him almost relaxes into a smile, but con- 
trols himself like a statue and merely blinks his 
eyes. See, here is a late arrival one has not hith- 
erto noticed, a strange-looking, dark man of mid- 
dle age or past it, who is talking with Mine, la 
Comtesse. His black beard is streaked with gray 
and his face lined with stud3 T . What is he say- 
ing to her, one wonders half unconsciously, and 
who and what can he be that she listens to him 
so attentively ? It might be a romance they are 
talking now, it may be that he is whispering love 
thoughts by inference. Maybe he is, maybe he 



IN LONDON TOWN. 201 

is not. Madame seems happy, and he seems near 
the gates of this world's heaven. Then she smiles 
so prettily, and laughs so low at times and sighs 
occasionally. And there is fire in his eye, too; 
the fire of passion or exultant enthusiasm. 

But it is scarcely love they speak, save their 
id3^1s are those of long-forgotten ages. For his 
heart is buried somewhere in the vicinity of the 
pyramid of Cheops, whereas hers — well, Madame 
la Comtesse has grown beyond being susceptible. 
Those smiles that once belonged to pretty alcoves, 
where lovers told her how sweet she was, now 
come in sympathy for the Pharaohs; that glitter 
in the dark man's eye is one of triumph over the 
secrets of the buried world. He is an Egyptol- 
ogist, a delver in the hidden secrets of the hiero- 
glyphs of Northern Africa. That pleasant win- 
ning smile and those quick descriptive gestures 
are to help out his word pictures of the temples 
and towns of the king architect, Thothmes. Now 
in graver tones he tells of the wise Bocchoris, 
again he speaks of the shepherd kings, and later 
of the great Rameses. All dead and gone and 
mummified and forgotten ere David came to the 
throne. And he speaks of their lives and ro- 
mances as one who has lived among them, and 
his heart throbs over those prehistoric romances 
whose actors lie buried in the Biban-el-Meluk. 

And somehow between the soft words from her 
who wears the long dark hair, and the non-conse- 



202 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

quentiai sentences of the Celestial diplomats, and 
the measured phrases of the princes of Hindos- 
tan, one cannot help listening- now and then to 
this discussion upon the fabled Sesostris, and the 
Egyptologist's argument to the comtesse that 
that hero could not have lived before Cheops, as 
is stated by Herodotus; nor yet in the thirty- 
seventh century before Christ; as is alleged by 
the sage Aristotle and other followers of the 
learned Dicasarchus. 

On the other hand, the dark man, who takes his 
knowledge not so much from the study of ancient 
tome or modern volume as from the records he 
himself has deciphered on sculptured rock or 
painted tomb by the dead cities of the Nile, is 
more inclined to regard Sesostris rather as Lep- 
sius did — the embodiment of many Pharaohs, 
probably Lethos I. and Rameses the Great, who 
was " born of the sun." 

And so they talk on matters recondite. While 
others mix in the chatter of the modern world, he 
tells strange, weird narratives about the loves 
of the shepherd kings. She smiles attentively 
and listens. Both are happy — why should they 
not be so ? At these Delsartean receptions the 
conversation generally runs chacun a son gout 
If those two prefer to talk of the Hittite, why 
should they chat about the shah's recent visit in 
common with those who know of naught more 
interesting- than the current twaddle of London ? 



IN LONDON TOWN. 203 

If the Chinese diplomat loves to chin-chin with 
the Indian student on the opium question, is it 
any reason why one who cares not whether all 
China dies of opiate insanity should speak there- 
on to a girl in a dark red frock who brings from 
the violin strains as soft as the voice of Israfel, 
and had eyes whose depths, if not so abstruse, are 
at any rate far more fascinating than the buried 
secrets of Egypt ? 

And so the time goes on, and no one seems to 
note how the summer evening is fitting by until 
people begin to make a general exodus in search 
of the dining-room. There, they instinctively 
seem to know, there may at this hour be found 
attractions to supersede even the conquest of the 
Mashuash, or the propriety of India's sending 
opium to China, or the literary reminiscences of 
the Bonaparte, or the — well, no; not quite super- 
sede her opinions on nothing at all. 

And the sugar seems to melt in her coffee so 
soon, and the other people get through so quickly, 
and they all seem in such a hurry to get home, 
and — and it is all over, only the calm serenity of 
the Bayswater night, the certainty that a hun- 
dred hansoms will dog one's footsteps home, an 
idea that Milwaukee ought to purchase a certain 
Grosvenor Gallery pastel for its own gallery, and 
a whole heap of vague notions about a clever wo- 
man who talked about Delsarte, and a queer 
couple that were cousins or something of the pyr- 



204 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

amids, and a half a dozen other things in the 
shape of dark eyes and long tresses are all that 
remain as memories of a by-gone Monday even- 
ing. 

E. A. Morphy. 



Modern Life.— Society is something too formal for an institution, too 
irregular for an organization, too vital for a machine, too heartless for 
a fraternity, too lawless for a school, too decent for a masquerade, with 
too much lying for a bureau and too many passions for a pageant.— 
Bishop Huntington. 

Shallow Critics.— But the wretcheder are the obstinate~contemners 
of all helps and arts ; such as presuming on their own naturals (which 
perhaps are excellent) dare deride all diligence, and seem to mock at the 
terms, when they understand not the things ; thinking that way to get 
off wittily with their ignorance. These are imitated often by such as are 
their peers in negligence, though they cannot be in nature ; and they 
utter all they can think with a kind of violence and indisposition unex- 
amined, without relation either to person, place, or any fitness else ; and 
the more wilful and stubborn they are in it, the more learned they are 
esteemed of the multitude, through their excellent vice of judgment ; 
who think those things the stronger that have no art ; as if to break 
were better than to open, or to rend asunder gentler than to loose.— Ben 
Jonson. 



A TALK ABOUT PICTUKES. 205 



" A leading trait of the American is adaptation 
to environment. In this country we only recognize 
possession. "—Win. Hosea Ballou. 

"Art is not nature, it is a suggestion impreg- 
nated with the artist's personality.' 1 — Charles 
Dudley Warner. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A TALK ABOUT PICTURES. 

English gardens— " Stone walls do not a prison make" 
— The home of Holman Hunt — The pre-Raphaelite 
Brotherhood and their purpose — A protest against 
academic composition — The "Triumph of the Inno- 
cents 1 ' — Domestic subjects and gilded frames — The 
peasant pictures of Jean Frangois Millet. 

Not many days ago, when wandering through 
the galleries of the Art Institute, I chanced to 
meet Mr. Edmund Russell, the apostle of Del- 
sartism, who not only can tell people how to 
dress, how to decorate their homes, and how to 
coax from nature every grace and beauty that 
she has hidden from the heedless, but can also 
fill an hour with a mixture of delightful gossip 
and acu tecriticism that is as exceptional as it is 
entertaining. . . . 

Mr. Russell continued: "Holman Hunt lives in 
a southwestern suburb of London called Putney, 



206 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

also the abode of Swinburne and other artists. 
His home, Draycott Lodge, is surrounded by high 
stone walls, the tall gate-post being surmounted 
by two eagles carved in gray stone. Nearly all 
of the houses in London are made pleasant by 
these inclosed gardens, the high stone wall giving 
such a picturesque appearance to the street, cov- 
ered with ivy, as they often are, or sometimes 
ruined and frowning with great gate-posts or 
carved doorways. These walls, eight or ten feet 
high, give a charming seclusion. The five-o'clock 
tea may be held in the garden, or a novel or a 
tete-a-tete enjoyed, and the children may be al- 
lowed to romp there without fear of any contact 
from the street. I remember telling an English 
artist how, in America, we have no such walls, 
most of the gardens being open to the street, 
without fences, and that much surprised comment 
would be aroused there as to the reason for such 
seclusion were it sought. ( O you dreadful Amer- 
icans/ he said, 'you love publicity so! ' 

"Really, on returning from Europe to America 
many towns have the appearance of toy villages 
or seaside resorts, such elaborately decorated 
houses being crowded together without any se- 
clusion or lines of separation. . . . 

" But we have digressed. We were stopping in 
fancy at the eagle-crested doorway of Holman 
Hunt's studio. If we had really been there we 
would not have paused so long, for the interior is 



A TALK ABOUT PICTURES. 207 

a veritable treasure-house, at the same time keep- 
ing- all the feeling- of a home. A great many 
rooms are on one floor, opening- from each other, 
but separated by heavy draperies, some designed 
by William Morris, others brought rom the 
Orient. I was present once at a party where in 
this long, low-studded drawing-room was given 
a series of tableaux, some of them from Holman 
Hunt's pictures, the original costumes and acces- 
sories being used. They were wonderfully beau- 
tiful, especially that of ' Isabella and the Pot of 
Basil/ representing her caressing the jar that 
contains her murdered lover's head, her unbound 
hair falling over it. After this tableau the chil- 
dren gave a little ' miracle play/ written by Mrs. 
Ewing, the author of ' Jackanapes/ the costumes 
of St. George, St. Michael, and the Dragon being 
wonderfully represented. I have never seen a 
house more strewn with beautiful objects, curious 
carved chests, Venetian caskets, Madonnas by 
Bellini, reliefs b}^ Delia Robbia, sketches by Ros- 
setti, and a thousand objects of art which would 
be wonderful in any museum, but which here sim- 
ply go to make up a most homelike artist's home. 

"Holman Hunt is one of the most poetic, most 
thoughtful and earnest of all the English artists. 
He is an artist who includes his art in his own 
personality, and all the deep meaning in his pic- 
tures means more after talking of them with him. 

" I spent a Sunday with him just before I came 



208 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

away, when he talked of the purpose of the pre- 
Raphaelite Brotherhood. It is generally sup- 
posed that pre-Raphaelism meant an affected im- 
itation of the manner of the painters who preceded 
Raphael; but this band of enthusiastic youth felt 
that they wished an art to express their own 
thought, their own poetic feeling, their own con- 
ception of beauty in the relations of men, untram- 
melled by the mass of academical tradition which 
usually burdens the genius of a student, often 
crushes his youthful originality with its weight, 
and yet is supposed to constitute a proper art 
education, a sort of dark passageway through 
which it is thought necessary for artistic youth 
to grope; but its shape is like a funnel and the 
opening at the other end so small that he must 
stoop very low, and reduce his originality to very 
small compass in order to even get out. The 
pre-Raphaelites decided to bolt at the entrance. 
Looking back into history they found that artists 
at the birth of art made their own art, studied 
nature in the seclusion of their walled cities 
brooding over beautiful things, living the life of 
artists and poets, so developing originality of 
style and poetry of feeling. 

" Raphael was a pupil of Perugino and repeated 
in his youth effects that it had taken his master 
a lifetime to learn. Compare the drapery of 
Raphael and Perugino, and we find the composi- 
tion of arrangement almost the same, but the 



A TALK ABOUT PICTURES. 209 

lines of Perugino more subtle, more delicate, his 
faces more tender and poetic. Then pupils began 
to repeat the traditions of Raphael, which became 
in turn traditional to another series of pupils, until 
at last they are the much-diluted traditions of 
Jones and Smith. Heads must be always ar- 
ranged in a triangle, and the ground-plan of 
all groups of figures must be an CO. An art 
education consists of two years' working from 
plaster casts with little knowledge of their 
spirit and meaning — we might almost say two 
years of trying to make charcoal look like plas- 
ter, to be followed by several years trying to 
make paint look like flesh, including, of course, 
some knowledge of the proper use of the W. and 
the triangle. 

" So they called themselves pre-Raphaelites, im- 
itators not of the style but the methods of those 
painters who preceded Raphael. They were 
young, for some years worked in seclusion, desir- 
ing to avoid public notice, and signed their work 
only "with the mystic initials P. R. B. Modern 
journalism would not consent to allow this to re- 
main long a mystery, and much harm was done 
by public criticism of their uncompleted aims. 
But their influence on art has been great. Es- 
pecially did they bring back the elements of awe 
and mystery and poetic purpose in art, which it 
sometimes seems has come down to the clean 
painting of a coal-scuttle in its misapplied efforts 
14 



210 A DELSAKTEAjN- scrap-book. 

at realism. Ouida tells us that a passion flower 
is just as realistic as a potato, while Carlyle gives 
us that superb sentence, 'The ideal is the real 
well seen/ 

"Mr. Ruskin says that 'The Triumph of the 
Innocents ' is the greatest religious picture of 
modern times. It is the result of years of labor 
and thought and must be studied in its concep- 
tion, as all great thing's must be studied. We do 
not thoroughly understand or appreciate the 
works of Wagner at first hearing. Wagner him- 
self insisted on a thorough knowledge of both 
words and subject. A lady once said to me: 
' Well, I want to understand a picture the first 
time I look at it.' I replied: 'What are you 
going to do the second time?' The subjects 
of our pictures nowadays are so meaningless, the 
purpose so small — triumphs not in art, but in art- 
ists' materials. If one is ■ Woman and Copper 
Pot' the next will be 'Copper Pot and Woman/ 
while 'Beauty and the Beast' has come down 
simply to ' Girl and Pig/ " 

We had already left our seats, strolling- into 
an adjoining room, where Mr. Russell's attention 
was attracted by a small picture called "The 
Forced Choice." "Here we have," said he, "a 
man in an attic with one ragged shirt, deciding 
whether he will put it on or not, in a gold frame 
six inches wide and a plush case behind it. It 
must be very valuable, of course, else why such 



A TALK ABOUT PICTURES. 211 

distinction ? A frame of rough wood would be 
equally effective and more appropriate." 

Commenting on various pictures as we passed 
along Mr. Russell said : " There is a large paint- 
ing by Jacquet, e The Queen of the Camp/ It is 
trivial, Frenchy, a descendant of the demoraliz- 
ing prettiness of Watteau and Boucher. That 
' Dead Tiger ' near by is an example of the hard- 
ness, the correctness, and the bad color of Ge- 
rome, although in detail the color of this rug is 
wonderfully beautiful. In contrast to the affected 
commonplace of the ' Camp Queen* we have this 
capricious revelry of \ Springtime and Love* by 
Michetti, an etude fantastique, a riot in color and 
eccentric daring, a Japanesque revel on a painter's 
palette. It should have been framed in plain 
sacking or rough boards. The decorative panel, 
by Hans Makart, entitled ' The Treasures of the 
Sea/ has great richness of color, not poetic but 
opulent, the relation of reds being a splendid 
stud} T in harmony of color, well ansAvering the 
question that has often been asked me whether 
related colors are not more monotonous than con- 
trast. There is a great difference between match- 
ing and relating colors. 

"The studies of French peasants so much in 
vogue at the present day are mostly chosen be- 
cause a few have painted them so well; but the 
feeling of Millet for French peasant life and his 
painting of French peasants are altogether differ- 



212 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

ent from this mere rendering* of starched linen 
and green grass of which we see so much. The 
motion of Millet's figures is perfect, their atti- 
tudes always correct and therefore natural. They 
seem as if they breathe and move. You find them 
so much alive that you become interested in their 
life. Millet was a great expressionist, although 
on a simple plane of expression. He was true, 
natural, and unaffected. If anybody would paint 
great characters and great deeds as well as he 
simple ones, ancient art would be forgotten. 

"We have in this ' Flower Girl* before us, for 
instance, simply the self-conscious pose of a 
model, the painting of black shoes and red stock- 
ings. Nearly all these pictures are posed wrong, 
expression not being taught in art schools. Most 
of the head positions are as false to nature as 
those of the ordinary photographer, who poses 
the figure, then turns the head, then says, e Now 
look at this little card/ In the expression of nat- 
ural feeling the eye always moves first, then the 
head, and then the body. 

" I believe that the principles of harmony and 
good taste should be taught in the public schools, 
a higher development of the kindergarten sys- 
tem, the objective method of study being carried 
into all that relates to daily life. And I think a 
class in wall-paper or carpets quite as important 
as one for the study of the names of fossils, 
minerals, or the i use of the globes/ We should 



A TALK ABOUT PICTURES. 213 

study harmony, so that our rooms may be quiet, 
dignified, serving* as backgrounds for their in- 
mates, and not simply filled with a mass of unre- 
lated objects. 

" That is my whole theory of it — art subordi- 
nated to the individual — the decoration not as- 
serting itself, but making more beautiful the 
thing decorated. Art is a matter of common- 
sense, the right thing in the right place, always 
in perfect relation to the individual, the expres- 
sion of his growth and the needs of his every-day 
life." 



The Ideal.— The process of idealization consists in imagining an ob- 
ject as transcending its limitations, existing in a perfection not actually 
attainable by it, and filling infinity with, its expanded characteristics. 
All that is necessary to truthfulness of idealization is the preservation of 
character and proportion.- -Keys of the Creeds. 

Art.— Is Art a mere imitative impulse, a record of the superficial facts 
and phases of nature in a particular medium ? Or is it the most subtle 
and expressive of languages, taking all manner of rich and varied forms 
in all sorts of materials under the paramount impulse of the selective 
search for beauty ?— Walter Crane. 

Oratory and Conversation.— It is a great mistake to think that speak- 
ing requires no special training and exercise. Even in ordinary con- 
versation speaking is an art and a difficult one, the supreme develop- 
ment of which is oratory. A man who knows how to speak in public 
and to spare his voice makes himself heard with little or no effort, while 
an untrained orator wears himself out quite rapidly.— Sir Morell Mac- 
kenzie. 

Art rN Clothes.— Art in clothes went out with the invention of the 
scissors and needle.— Henrietta Russell. 

BEConrNGNESS op Jewels.— In the present state of the market the 
becomingness of jewels varies inversely with their price.— Henrietta 
Russell. 



214 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"Like all mothers, I am fond of seeing chil- 
dren prettily dressed, but I do not believe in pun- 
ishing them for the sake of effect. I will not 
let my children wear any clothes that are too nice 
to tumble about in. Whatever the style or tex- 
ture, it must have comfort and service as well as 
beauty. I want them also to fit loosely, and I in- 
sist on having plenty of room in the shoes. 11 — 
Mrs. McKee. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

CELEBRATED LONDON WOMEN. 

One must have fine personal character to be beautiful in 
old age — Mrs. Gladstone and the Baroness Burdette- 
Coutts — Lady Wilde and Mona Caird — Lady Shelley 
— John Strange Winter — The noted women novelists. 

Delsartism is again in vogue. Mrs. Edmund 
Russell returned from Europe recently, and I had 
the pleasure the other day of attending- an " even- 
ing " given in her honor in New York. She was 
looking radiantly well, her eyes shone brilliantly 
under that wreath of short curls, about her broad 
brow, which is the special individuality of her 
face. She wore a regal-looking robe of leaf- 
brown cloth. The robe proper was a furrean, or 
sheath-like princesse gown, fitting easily, but not 
loosely. Over this in the back falls a drapery of 
rich bronze-colored plush, coming from the neck 
and rippling down, in some carelessly graceful 



CELEBEATED LONDON WOMEN. 215 

fashion, caught up here and there with antique 
gold clasps to form a long train. In front the 
plush, encrusted with glistening discs of gold, 
was caught up on each shoulder in Grecian style 
by clasps of gold, thence falling full to the feet, 
except where it was looped with three gold pins, 
representing laurel leaves. She wore no jewelry, 
except an antique gold necklace of exquisite work- 
manship — which encircled her throat just at that 
point where it curves to form the neck. The 
effect of this superb robe, with its rich, darkly 
shining folds — worn by a woman whose trained 
body obeyed every impulse of her mobile emo- 
tional being — can better be imagined than de- 
scribed. This is but one of the number of classic 
costumes Mrs. Russell brought with her from 
London. They were all designed and modelled 
by Mr. Russell. They combine Persian richness 
of effect with Greek simplicity. It was in the 
brown and gold gown just described that Mrs. 
Russell was painted for the Royal Academy, by 
Mr. Charles Sainton, the artist son of the late . 
Madam Sainton-Dolby — a full-length portrait — 
her figure in a pose that finely illustrated its wil- 
lowy grace. 

During the evening Mrs. Russell gave one of 
her easy spontaneous talks upon " Natural Ex- 
pression," illustrating the laws of expression, and 
exposing the lack of truth in so many of the con- 
ventional movements of every-day social life. 



216 A DELSAKTEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

She was at her best in her talk, and in the after 
conversation with her friends mentioned many 
interesting" incidents of her life in London, and 
spoke of the celebrated personalities of the pres- 
ent day, and the number of literary personages 
met while there. " I am glad to come home and 
see my friends/' she said, " but ah ! there is a 
great charm in London social life. Nowhere 
are artists, scientists, journalists, and literary 
people received with such open-handed hospital- 
ity. There, as in no other part of the world, do 
they receive the recognition and distinction due 
them. People in London do not think only of a 
fine house and long bank account." 

I>3 T no means is the " palm " for beauty, talent, 
and refinement awarded entirely to the younger 
women of London, but sharing equally with them 
are the beautiful old women who have lived most 
of their noble lives there. Mrs. Gladstone and 
Baroness Burdette-Coutts, who has a " strange, 
sweet, weak face," come first on the list of beau- 
tiful old women. Mrs. Gladstone's greatest 
beauty lies in her expression, so well interpreted 
by Hubert Herkomer at the Eoyal Academy. 
Another charming* old woman is Mrs. Sterling, 
recently retired from Irving's Theatre. 

Mrs. Proctor, the mother of Adelaide Anne 
Proctor and widow of Barry Cornwall. At 
eighty-six Mrs. Proctor was still a brilliant so- 
ciety woman. Mrs. Tom Taylor still holds her 



CELEBRATED LONDON WOMEN. 217 

place among" the best amateur pianists of Lon- 
don. Mrs. Pfeifer, of artistic dress reform fame, 
is said to have written sonnets, " the finest since 
Shakespeare." She wears some of the best adap- 
tations of Grecian drapery to modern costumes 
that Mrs. Russell has ever seen. 

Mona Caird, the original agitator in that in- 
teresting discussion, "Is Marriage a Failure?" 
looked, when Mrs. Russell saw her last at Lady 
Wilde's, a living proof that " Marriage is a Suc- 
cess." Mona Caird is little and pretty, and dresses 
in the fashion, without the slightest appearance 
of a neglected wife or strong-minded woman, and 
looks as though she could have made a success of 
many marriages. 

Lad} 7 Shelley is the wife of Sir Percy Shelley, 
the poet's only son, "and is," says Mrs. Russell, 
"the loveliest, sweetest woman in the world." 
Mr. and Mrs. Russell spent a week at the Shelleys' 
country-seat and spoke of the pleasant after-din- 
ner and evening talks with Lady Shelley, and her 
charming renderings of the Shelley traditions. 
" Sir Percy," said Mrs. Russell, " died a few months 
ago. He has been perhaps the strongest link 
between society and the stage. The finest equipped 
private theatre in London belonged to Sir Perc} 7 . 
It is in his London house at Chelsea. He has an- 
other in Boscombe Manor at Bournemouth, i that 
city in the midst of a pine forest.' 

" One of Mrs. Russell's first courses of drawing- 



218 A DELSAETEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

room lectures took place at the house of Mrs. 
Arthur Stannard (John Strange Winter), the 
brilliant author of ' Booties' Baby/ Her identity 
was not known until recently. She is as interest- 
ing as her stories of ' Garrison Life/ ' Booties' 
Baby \ was written before either Mrs. Stannard's 
little girl or the twins w r ere born. She lives on 
the banks of the river Thames, in a pleasant home 
with a lawn in front, sloping to the river. Mrs. 
Stannard occasionally gives readings from her 
own works, and has much enthusiasm about visit- 
ing America. She is society's favorite and enter- 
tains with much hospitality. Her garden parties 
are a special feature of the London season." 

Mrs. Russell told how she had grown up with 
her ideas of Tennyson's heroines, taken from 
paintings and illustrations by the pre-Raphaelite 
school, and had found them embodied in the 
tragic beauty and costumes of Mrs. Holman 
Hunt, the wife of the painter of the greatest 
modern "Madonna." 

Among the noted novelists of the day whom 
Mrs. Russell met while in London were Mrs. 
Campbell Praed, Ouida, Mrs. Lynn Lynton, Mrs. 
Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mrs. Cashel Hoey, 
and Vernon Lee. 

Mrs. Lynn Lynton's writings are philosophical 
as well as sentimental, while it is said of Vernon 
Lee, " the mantle of George Eliot has fallen upon 
her." 



CELEBEATED LONDON WOMEN. 219 

Vernon Lee, the author of the ass the tic life of 
"Miss Brown," created a sensation by taking- her 
heroine from real life, and while portraying", as 
she does, with great power the humble origin of 
the heroine, was yet a resented liberty in certain 
high aesthetic circles. At present she lives in 
Florence in great retirement, a s she is devoted to 
the care of an invalid brother and "to the studies 
of early Italian art, which she has used with such 
masterly power in her essays. " Meeting these 
people in a pleasant, informal way," said Mrs. 
Russell, " helps to make me feel that it is delight- 
ful to live in London in spite of the dismal fog." 

Among those who particularly interested Mrs. 
Russell while abroad were: Madame Delsarte, 
Lady Shelley, Duchess of Mantua, Madame Bla- 
vatsky, "that smartest woman in the world," 
Lady Wilde, and Lad} 7 Dorothy Nevill, who rank 
among those who know best how to make a 
drawing-room a u salon." 

Laura C. Boylan. 



American Voices.— Quality, force, and pitch are the attributes of voice. 

Cultivate quality, make the voice sweet and musical ; strength will 
come naturally from use. 

Americans excel in singing, not in speaking ; they do not cultivate a 
speaking voice. 

The voice of American ladies is harsh, of English ladies is rich and 
deep, of French ladies is higher pitched, but musical.— Henrietta Russell. 



220 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



' ' In Art all effects are regulated. The original 
suggestion may be and generally is sudden and 
unprepared— 'inspired, 1 as we say ; but the alert 
intellect recognizes its truth, seizes on, regulates 
it. Without nice calculation no proportion could 
be preserved ; one should have a work of fitful im- 
pulse, not a work of enduring Art."— Lewes. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A LONDON STUDIO. 

An interview on the studio of Felix Moscheles— The cot- 
tage in Cadogan Gardens— Spoons and bric-a-brac 
from America — An interesting portrait-gallery— The 
artist's personality — A studio bedroom. 

I will commence with the studio of Felix Mo- 
scheles, for there it was that we gave our first 
lecture upon the Art of Expression. Among" 
those present w r ere Robert Browning, Whistler, 
Henry M. Stanley, Canon Harford, Oscar Wilde, 
and the Alma Tademas. Those who remember 
Moscheles' studio here in the top story of the Chel- 
sea, and have since enjoyed the drive to Cadogan 
Gardens in London, were no doubt surprised to 
find the little, low, one-story rambling cottage in 
the midst of rhododendron bushes, covered with 
vines and shadowed by stately trees. Many 3'ears 
ago the Earl of Cadogan gave the elder Moscheles 



A LONDON STUDIO. 221 

permission to build his house in the centre of these 
gardens. 

Fancy, if you will, a space of loveliness, say like 
Stuyvesant Square, only very much larger and 
more beautiful, with a little cottage in the centre, 
and then you will have an idea of its charming 
situation and the envy it must arouse from the 
dwellers in the brown-stone houses which sur- 
round it. Permission was given for the house to 
remain here only for a certain term of years, but 
the lease has been extended by the present lord, 
to endure during the life-time of Felix Moscheles' 
brother-in-law, Professor Roche; so that within 
a few years, to say the least, this most interest- 
ing of studios will be swept away, and will only 
remain as a historic tradition.* 

" Nearly every well-known man in art, science, 
and letters has been received within the walls of 
this quaint studio, while the highest of the nobil- 
ity are pleased to attend its receptions. In this 
description let me say that the original building 
has been extended by many additions since the 
time Felix Moscheles' father lived here. These 
include a grand studio on one side, with its adja- 
cent lumber-rooms, a dining-room, and an odd 
little hall that crooks and turns and elbows its 
wa3 r through the various additions to the struc- 
ture — which, by-the-by, in all its years has never 

* The cottage has been torn down since this interview 
was taken. 



222 A DELSARTEAJN" SCRAP-BOOK. 

taken on the dignity of a second story in height. 
The interior we find filled with everything that 
is beautiful in the way of decorative art, lovely 
rugs and drapery, strange bits of silver and bric- 
a-brac, much of which has been collected during 
Mr. Moscheles' American tour. I want to tell 
you that when first I went over there, I would 
pick up some lotos-twined spoon or object in 
opalescent glass and think how delightful it was 
to have art thus enter into every detail of ordi- 
nary life and how I wished we had such things in 
the States. Then I would turn to Mr. Moscheles 
and say: 'Where did you get this beautiful ob- 
ject ? ' l Oh/ he would reply, ' I bought that in 
America/ And I have since happily learned to 
know that no country has made such wonderful 
advancement in decorative art, the art of living, 
the art of being, as our own. 

" On the walls of the Moscheles studio hang 
many portraits of celebrated friends of the art- 
ist — works of his own hand, I will add — Rubin- 
stein, Sarasate, Browning, Stanley, Guiseppe, 
Mazzini, and our own ex-President Cleveland. 
To me his finest, and at the same time most 
interesting, portrait is that of his mother, which 
is hung in the Royal Academy. A wonderful 
woman, the widow of the great pianist and com- 
poser, Ignatz Moscheles. It is a face of great 
dignity and beautiful character. We dined with 
her one evening," continued Mr. Russell, as he 



A LONDON STUDIO. 223 

showed me a photograph from the picture, " and 
were fascinated by her wonderful reminiscences, 
ohe had known every important personage of 
the present century — Mendelssohn, Rachel, Bee- 
thoven, and even the great Siddons. The lovely 
Scott-Siddons was present on the evening that I 
mentioned, and was much astonished when Mme. 
Moscheles turned to her and in her sweetly win- 
ning voice remarked, 'Why, I knew your re- 
nowned kinswoman, Sarah Siddons/" 

"And now, as to the personality of Felix Mo- 
scheles ? " I further inquired. 

"A man of great social tact, kindness of heart, 
and elegance of manner," he answered. "And 
Mrs. Moscheles is a most beautiful woman, espe- 
cially remarkable for her hair, which is like threads 
of spun gold and keeps the sunlight in it, even on 
the darkest day. Her dress is the happiest mean 
between art and conventionality that I have ever 
seen. It ever manages to delight the artist, 
while it does not, by its eccentricity, offend the 
taste of the most conservative society person. 
And now let us extend the license a bit and take 
a momentary look at the bedroom which does 
service as a dressing-room for the tableaux and 
music-plays sometimes given on the little stage 
at the back of the cottage, which you will see by 
the photograph has a jewelled glass window be- 
hind it and is covered with white bearskin. It 
is furnished in a delicate tint of robin J s-egg blue; 



224 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

the toilet-table is strewn with every imaginable 
article of luxury, in old ivory and silver, and the 
panels of the wardrobe and doors are filled with 
paintings of Burne-Jones-like classic figures. 

" On one side of the studio opens a little sitting- 
room belonging to Mrs. Moscheles — her personal 
room, you know — and filled with photographs of 
her artistic friends and many gifts and treasures, 
and containing some of her own flower paintings 
— very beautiful and tender in sentiment. Upon 
another side of the studio opens the dining-room, 
always filled with lovely flowers, every object on 
the table being some charming work of decora- 
tive art, and, as I said before, many of them com- 
ing from America. The table-cloth is particularly 
interesting, being made of pieces of old German 
embroidery collected at various times, some of 
them dating three or four centuries back. 

" There are no rocking-chairs in London, but Mr. 
and Mrs. Moscheles have travelled in America, 
consequently they own one. Going early to a 
reception I found Mary Anderson sitting by the 
quaint fire-place telling of her visit to Lord Ten- 
nyson, rocking backward and forward all the 
time, while the English ladies looked on in perfect 
horror and said ' How bold ! ' " 

Ardennes Jones -Foster. 



The Moscheles Guests.— Gounod would stroll in of an evening and 
light his pipe, and talk eloquently on art and music. 
Arthur Sullivan winner of the first Mendelscohn scholarship, was 



A LONDON STUDIO. 225 



often a guest here, and Patti, and Jenny Lind, and Viardot, Garcia, and 
Wieniawski. Another constant visitor in those days was " Mr. Ernesti," 
from the Brompton Road. That was the name his landlady called him. 
But at Moscheles' studio he was known as Mazzini. Indeed, the great 
exile made but little concealment either of his name or his metier. " Je 
conspire, toujour sje conspire,' 1 '' was his favorite answer when asked how 
the world was faring with him in the country of his adoption. It is 
doubtful whether Moscheles ever painted anything finer than that 
portrait of his friend, in which he caught to perfection the ruse look of 
the diplomatist and the sorrow-charged, almost prophetic, eyes of the 
exile. The gatherings at Moscheles 1 studio were unlike anything of the 
kind in London, though not unlike the prized reunions in Paris and 
Berlin. The guests were always sympathetic ; the right people were 
asked ; the commonplace were almost unrepresented. Foremost among 
the guests in those old days was sure to be George Eliot. You would see 
her sitting, sphinx-like, with Dantesque profile, in that chair of honor 
always assigned to her. 

Of all the great names associated with the studio— and those names in- 
clude Joachim, Rubinstein, Stanley, Mme. Schumann, Santley, Tadema, 
Leighton, Irving, Sarasate, the Terrys, Bulow, Whistler, Louis Blanc— 
the greatest, as among all the friends the most intimate and the most 
constant, was Browning. For twenty-five years, in the little studio and 
the large, he was welcomed as something more than a friend. The great 
stars who visited London came and went and came again, but Browning 
one met always. He loved a painting-room and the society of painters. 
He delighted to sit and talk with that host and hostess who were never 
more happy than when he was their guest. He watched the intention of 
the artist's brush with the interest, with the sympathy, of a master in a 
kindred art. "I will look in to-morrow,'" he writes, dating his letter 
May 9th, 1889, " always enjoying, as I do, the right of creation by another 
process than that of the head, with only pen and paper to help. How 
expeditiously the brush works ! ,-1 So he spent his last birthday in that 
studio with the old friends. Only a month before he had written for 
Moscheles, on his picture of "The Isle's Enchantress, 11 the beautiful lines 
that so graphically described it : 

" Wind- wafted from the sunset, o'er the swell 
Of summer's slumberous sea, herself asleep, 
Came shoreward, in her iridescent shell 
Cradled, the Isle's Enchantress. You who keep 
A drowsy watch beside her, watch her well. 11 

When talk was at full flow you heard as many languages as at the 
waiting-room of the railway station at Cologne. One evening Modjeska 
started up and gave an impassioned recitation in Polish. People were 
delighted— they were scarcely surprised.— From the New York Herald, 
London. 



15 



226 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



" ' Law, Love, and Grace ' are divine attributes ; 
' Truth, Goodness, and Beauty ' their correlative 
principles ; 'Science, Religion, and Art 1 their re- 
spective Cultures; ' Good judgment, 1 'Goodwill, 1 
and 'Good taste 1 their derivative and related 
Virtues. 11 — J, W, Stimson. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

SOME FAMOUS ART HOUSES. 

Gladstone as a conversationalist — Americans in London 
— The "Narcissus " hall of Sir Frederick Leighton — 
Alma Tadema and his Greek studio — The private 
theatre of Hubert Herkomer and Sir Percy Shelley 
— William Morris at home. 

Mr. Gladstone was much interested in Del- 
sartism. When we first went to London we met 
and dined with him. He talked long- and ear- 
nestly on the subject, and after hearing" an expo- 
sition of it from Mrs. Russell said that he hoped 
it would be used in every college and school in 
England. Mr. Gladstone is a man of the widest 
knowledge on all subjects, and entirely drops the 
worker and the politician. He converses with 
the greatest ease and enthusiasm on probably a 
wider range of subjects than any living man. 
The lines of his face are hard, but his smile is 



SOME FAMOUS ART HOUSES. 227 

very sweet and he has the most perfect articula- 
tion of any one I met in England. He is entirely 
free from the so-called English mannerisms. 

At present there is the greatest rage in London 
over Americans. It is enough to be only an Amer- 
ican, but American artists are especially well 
received. At a farewell reception given to me in 
London my reply to many speeches was that while 
Sarah Bernhardt said had she her choice in life 
she would be an English duke and live in Paris, 
my choice would say " an American artist and 
live in London." 

American singers are much sought after now. 
When I went to say good-by to our contralto, 
Belle Cole, she was dining with the Duchess of 
Wellington. 

In general domestic architecture and interior 
decoration I have seen more beautiful examples 
in the few days that I have been in New York 
than I have seen in all London. The morning I 
spent at the Associated Artists yesterday was a 
treat and wonder, even after seeing everything 
that is to be seen in the way of art decorations in 
Europe. We have so much money, so much en- 
thusiasm, and such intelligence to change and de- 
sire to have the best in everything' that the prog- 
ress even in one year is ver} T great. The average 
English homes are dull and cheerless, and the 
art in them is commonplace. Of course the excep- 
tions to this are the homes of the great English 



228 A DELSARTEAN SCKAP-BOOK. 

artists. Sir Frederick Leighton's house and 
studio are marvels as color studies. 

His hall of Oriental tiles in every shade of tur- 
quoise and peacock blue, with jewelled glass win- 
dows and a softly-splashing- fountain, is one of 
the most beautiful effects in color I have ever 
seen. Alma Tadema's studio is reached by a flight 
of golden stairs; the steps being entirely covered 
with plates of polished brass. He is busy painting' 
his picture for the next Academy, which will be a 
companion to the " Vintage Festival," which he 
considers his masterpiece. The present picture 
represents the ceremony of bringing the first wine 
sack into the temple and is crowded with figures 
and brilliant in color. An object of great interest 
in the studio is the celebrated piano, with its case 
inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, its lid lined 
with parchment on which are written the names of 
the great musicians who have played upon it or 
sung to its accompaniment. 

It is a great contrast to go from this room, 
so entirely Greek in its character, to the studio 
of Mrs. Alma Taclema, which is a Dutch interior, 
with quaintly-carved oak walls and little diamond- 
paned windows brought from Holland. 

The house that Hubert Herkomer is building 
promises to be one of the wonders of modern times. 
Mr. Herkomer is of a family of wood carvers who 
are spending the entire labor of their lives upon its 
details. The great pieces of furniture are all 



SOME FAMOUS ART HOUSES. 229 

built into the house. The fire-places, the screens, 
and the columns all represent years of labor and 
are very beautiful. The house contains a theatre, 
in which a performance of an opera, the music 
written and the scenery painted by Mr. Her- 
komer, was one of the sensations of London last 
season, being especially visited by London man- 
agers to study the novel effects in lighting. Foot- 
lights were dispensed with, and the gradual pro- 
gression from daylight to twilight, night and 
morning, was effected by various novel mechani- 
cal contrivances of the artist. 

There are many private theatres in London. 
Among the most interesting is that of Sir Percy 
Shelley, son of the poet, who has one in his town- 
house in London and another in his country -place 
at Bournemouth. Sir Percy is the third baronet 
and inherited the title long after his father's death. 
He was born soon after his father wrote the fa- 
mous tragedy, " The Cenci." The theatre is the 
passion of his life. We spent a week at his country- 
house, a manor facing the sea and containing a 
room entirely devoted to the relics of Shelley. Sir 
Percy writes plays, paints the scenery, composes 
the incidental music, and produces them at great 
pains and expense in his private theatre. He is a 
lo vely old man,and Lady Shelley is one of the finest 
women in England. Another interesting private 
theatre of London is that of William Morris, artist, 
poet, and socialist. A low, long, barren, white- 



230 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

washed room, where nearly every night socialistic 
and anarchistic doctrines are thundered forth from 
a little platform which sometimes is transformed 
with beautiful draperies, and there the celebrated 
socialistic drama written by William Morris is 
acted. Mr. Morris receives his guests in a com- 
mon-looking- blue flannel shirt, has a pleasant smile 
and a hearty grasp for every one. The interior of 
his house is very attractive, especially because of 
the many portraits by Rossetti of Mrs. Morris, 
whom artists have said is the most beautiful wo- 
man in the world. She goes out but little and is 
rarely seen. A poet was speaking in hushed voice 
of her beauty. I asked him if he had ever seen 
her. He replied, no — yes, once in his life he had 
seen her through a vista of rooms. He saw her 
pass behind a glass door. Another artist said he 
had seen her, but he was so abashed by her glo- 
rious beauty that he cast down his eyes and could 
say nothing, and she passed on. — Interview with 
Mr. Russell. 



An Art Iconoclast. — "Now, may I ask you one personal question as 
to the truth of a certain paragraph I read, I believe, in the Pall Mall 
Gazette, about your smashing up, with a hammer, works of art which 
you consider unworthy of the name? I never knew if it were a skit or 
not." 

Mr. Russell appeared very much amused at this question, which cer- 
tainly savored rather of curiosity than an earnest inquiry after knowl- 
edge, which I had informed him was my object. 

"Well, there was just so much truth in that hammer business that I 
cannot altogether contradict it. At the end of a certain course of lec- 
tures I was giving in New York on decorative art, good, bad, and in- 
different, I invited the audience to bring any and every object they 
owned, producing either in form or color a demoralizing effect on the 
mind ; proposing a general holocaust." 



SOME FAMOUS AET HOUSES. 231 



" After the fashion of a modern Savonarola, 1 '' I suggested. 

"Well, the result was that I found on my arrival at the lecture hall 
a table on the platform literally crowded with abominations of all kinds 
in china and earthenware, and then and there proceeded to demolish 
them with that historical hammer, after their defects had been demon- 
strated clearly to every one's satisfaction. A garbled account of this got 
into one of the American Sunday newspapers, from thence was copied 
into the Pall Mall Gazette— this was quoted back again into half a dozen 
Western journals, and so on ad lib. Nor was this the worst of it. The 
American Sunday newspaper is nothing if not sensational, and had em- 
bellished its paragraph with a block purporting to be a speaking likeness 
of the daring iconoclast. This also got copied in its turn, and the last 
time I saw it it was illustrating an account of a ' thrilling murder per- 
petrated by a dangerous lunatic.' I suppose the portrait of the homici- 
dal maniac was bound to go in, and they took the first old block that 
came to hand.' 1 '' — Texas Si/ tings. 

Edmund Russell's Orange Room.— It was an excellent'room in its way, 
but it's being multiplied and caricatured on every hand. This was the 
story of the original room : The aesthetic Mr. Russell had a friend in 
Massachusetts who, " like most Massachusetts women, was a very nice 
sort of person, but lived in a house that was distressing." (Observe, 
please, that the last sentence is quoted.) This good but unaesthetic indi- 
vidual wished to refurnish her parlor, but could spend only ten dollars. 

" Give me," said the amiable Edmund, "your X and I will see what I 
can make out of you." 

Like all tales of furnishing, this story starts with wall-paper at eighteen 
cents a roll. It was a north room and so the paper was orange, warm but 
toned down by the shadows. From wall-paper it goes to paint, olive-green 
paint with a touch of turquoise on the low old-fashioned ceiling beams. 
These items cost less than five dollars, and Edmund began to see his way 
to living on nothing and laying up money. He pulled down ' ' Washington 
at Mount Vernon" and "Lincoln and his Family" and the rest of the 
pictures, and put up photographs of classical subjects in the old frames, 
first taking the precaution to paint them orange. Then he bought a 
plaster cast for seventy-five cents and varnished it to look like old ivory. 
In fact, he: did all the things that you usually hear fairy stories about, 
even to bringing in a tall clock which the old lady happened fortunately 
to have, and to covering the haircloth sofa with olive-green canton flannel. 
He spent somewhere in the vicinity of §9.87 and had thirteen cents for 
his pains. 

That orange room has been productive of more mischief in New York 
than a mild small-pox epidemic. Every day you hear of a new woman 
who has gone and done likewise, to her own discomfiture, and the setting 
on edge of the teeth of her visitors. You see cheap orange paper hob- 
nobbing with silk hangings and brocades. You see orange in south rooms 
and east rooms, where the sun shines on it, making it crudely glaring. 
You see canton flannel contrasting with Wilton velvet carpets. You see 
cheapness and dearness mixed up in a blind follow-my -leader fashion 
that makes the judicious grieve. You see hand-painted frames put about 
costly oil paintings. O tempora ! O mores 1 O Mr. Russell!— Elizabeth 
Dustin in Brooklyn Times. 



232 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"On this world's poison tree, there are two 
honey-sweet fruits : the enjoyment of the divine 
essence of poetry and the friendship of the 
noble. ''''—Indian Proverb. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

A HINDOO SOIREE IN LONDON. 

An evening at Mr. Matthius Mull's— The oriental friends 
of the Shakespearean scholar — Some beautiful 
dresses — The Indian law students — Indian music 
and dancing — Indian taste deteriorating under Eng- 
lish influence. 

One felt upon entering- the drawing-room that 
some breath of Indian air had found its way into 
f oggy London, warming- and softening- the murky 
atmosphere, such is the mystical mellowing- influ- 
ence with which these Orientals are surrounded. 
The room was brilliantly lighted, and when we 
entered the guests were standing about in groups 
quietly conversing. The motley garbs were 
strange enough; here, an English gentleman clad 
from head to foot in the unbecoming straight-cut 
but inevitable black; there, a Hindoo, with, his 
rich, flowing robes, adding to his every gesture a 
grace which is foreign to us. Some of the Hin- 
doos were dressed half in English, half in their 



A HINDOO SOIREE IN LONDON. 233 

national costume* the English mathematically- 
cut trousers contrasting- strangely, and I ma}^ say 
painfully, to the massive turbans which covered 
their noble figures. The dignified manners of 
these Orientals are indeed striking; they made 
no awkward blunders; we all remarked that their 
manners were those of perfect gentlemen. 

Now I must speak of the marvellous costumes. 
The first which we noticed was a rich plum-col- 
ored silk embroidered in gold thread. I think I 
never before have seen work to equal this; the 
finest gold thread must have been used, and the 
sleeves, shoulders, back, and front were most elab- 
orate in execution and design. This gentleman 
was from Delhi, and wore no turban, but a cap 
embroidered to match his dress; he wore also 
gray stockings, orange-colored trousers wrapped 
around the leg, and richly-embroidered slippers. 
During the evening he entertained us with a 
dance in imitation of the Nautch girls, which he 
executed with great ease and skill, dancing with 
the body rather than with the legs, holding his 
arms horizontally the whole time and keeping 
step to the strange, weird music which was played 
by two other Hindoo gentlemen, one playing a 
zither and the other keeping up an incessant thud, 
thud, thud, on a book which he held in his lap, 
but the whole effect was most charming. 

One gentleman wore a magnificent yellow dress 
richly embroidered; another a costume worked 



234 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

all over in a Paisley pattern; another costume 
was trimmed with narrow bands of several dif- 
ferent-colored furs; with these turbans were worn. 
The one we admired the most was of simple white 
muslin, and a lady present told us that there were 
ten yards in it, that the youth always wore it to 
cover his hair, which was long — I believe she said 
below his waist. When some one suggested that 
he cut it off, she informed us that he belonged to a 
certain class in India, the Sikhs, and if he did so 
he could never again be received by them. 

After we had admired all these rich and beau- 
tiful costumes, an English friend suggested that 
they play to us some of their national music; at 
first they seemed very shy, in fact they were so 
all the evening, and it was with some difficulty 
that they were prevailed upon to begin. The 
first we had was an air played on a very long 
zither by a handsome young Hindoo who was 
dressed in the English costume. The music re- 
minded me at once of our Gregorian tones; in 
fact they are identical, only the Indian music has 
throughout a sustaining note, which gives it a 
weird, sleepy effect, and before you are aware you 
are quite fascinated by it. Their music shows a 
finer division of sound than ours, having quarter 
tones in their scale; for instance, there is another 
note between C and C-sharp. They do not use 
wide intervals, but compose their melody with a 
few tones, keeping those close to the sustained 



A HINDOO SOIREE IN LONDON. 235 

notes. Our music sounds to them like sudden 
screams and shrieks. 

Another Hindoo, a remarkably large, fine-built 
gentleman, played for us on a sort of flutina, very 
prettily, with exactly the same lulling effect, the 
sustaining note still marking it throughout. One 
gentleman was asked to sing, but he was very 
shy, and our friends had great trouble to get him 
to do so. He had a well-modulated sweet voice, 
and sang a love song, in a sitting posture and 
swaying gently to and fro, and before he had 
finished we remarked that the others were sway- 
ing also. I suppose the air touched sympathetic 
chords in their hearts. 

Then Mr. Russell recited to us that grandly 
dramatic poem, "Mother Egypt," by Joaquin 
Miller. It was as new to me as it was to our 
Hindoo friends, who seemed to be highly enter- 
tained by it. Before our pleasant evening drew 
to a close we prevailed upon Mr. Russell to give 
us another of his charming recitations, the 
" Lilith " of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which they 
seemed equally to enjoy, and then, after a little 
general conversation, Mr. Russell gave a very 
eloquent and witty address on their national art 
in dress versus our conventional English fash- 
ions. He spoke of dress in its relation to the hu- 
man body, dwelling on the deplorable fact that 
our English styles literally murder expression. 
He also begged of them not to discontinue their 



236 A DELSAKTEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

national costumes and use our ugly and unpoet- 
ical ones for substitutes; he knew, he said, how 
they were perhaps open to ridicule upon our 
streets, but that was only on the part of the 
ignorant few, and they did not in any way ex- 
press the opinion of the English as a nation, who 
he was sure fully appreciated the poetry and 
beauty of their dress as being the expression of 
the Eastern mind; and if modified for the street 
it could at least be retained for the house. Mr. 
Russell concluded his admirable talk by again 
urging them not to discontinue the use of their 
beautiful fabrics and jewels, telling them that if 
they did so it only made it harder for the next 
set of students who came over, causing them to 
adopt English dress, and so on ad infinitum. 

Our very pleasant evening terminated by a 
charming speech from a handsome Hindoo gen- 
tleman who, in the most perfect English, thanked 
us gracefully for our company, also touching the 
main topics of Mr. Russell's address with intelli- 
gence and eloquence. Earlier in the evening a 
dinner had been given in Mr. RusselPs honor, 
where all the dishes were Oriental; as Mr. Russell 
describes their fiery mixtures — " heat of all kinds, 
from sunshine to hell-fire." We left our Hindoo 
friends quite regretfully. We shook hands all 
around, and some of them accompanied us to the 
door. 

We returned to our very English homes feeling 



A HINDOO SOIKEE IN LONDON. 237 

thai some magic curtain of the Eastern world had 
been drawn aside and been dropped down again, 
leaving us but the memory of grand, dusky faces 
lit by mysterious eyes, the rustle of silken gar- 
ments, and a lulling mystical music that haunted 
us even in our dreams. 

Helen Fagg. 



"Monday Evening."— I suppose it is the right thing first to speak of 
how Mr. Russell received me in an apartment made gracious by various 
touches of Oriental and modern art — a panel of "Virgil and the Muse," 
embroidered from a design by Burne-Jones, being a prominent attrac 
tion ; how he lighted an Indian incense-burner before we began our talk 
— possibly to give an Oriental color to the proceeding, for let it be un- 
derstood that our Delsartean, though hailing from the West, appears 
irresistibly to gravitate in all his ideas and tastes toward the East ; and 
those who have the entree to Mr. and Mrs. Russell's "Monday even- 
ing," will probably find a larger contingent of the dusky children of 
Hindostan there than in any other drawing-room in London. I have seen 
them myself, looking like bees round a lily, or bulbuls round a rose (or 
any other Eastern metaphor you prefer), as they cluster about the path 
of Mrs. Russell, who moves like a Greek goddess, in her white and saf- 
fron draperies ; or initiating Mr. Russell into the intricate mysteries of 
Indian etiquette. I have even heard of a choice dinner or supper, with 
Indian costumes and Indian dishes, given in honor of this fair-skinned 
lover of Aryavata, whose affection and admiration seems fully apprecia- 
ted and reciprocated.— London Letter. 

No Use.— All was excitement on board the ship. A beautiful maiden 
had fallen overboard ! 

"Throw her a rope! " shouted a hundred voices. 

Willing hands seized a rope and threw it over the side of the vessel It 
dangled jnst above her head. She made a brave effort to reach it, but 
was unable to get her arms above her head, and with a wild, despairing 
shriek she— but the pen shrinks from its sorrowful task. . . . She wore a 
tailor-made suit.— Chicago Tribune. 



238 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 



"Delsartism is a method of observing nature 
and teaching art. 

"The science of expression — the science of 
beauty. 

"Until the discoveries of Delsarte the laws of 
expression were unknown— the laws of beauty 
only partially known, so that with the world full 
of artists by instinct a teacher of art was an im- 
possibility. 

" In all future time all honest teachers of the arts 
of oratory, acting, painting, sculpture, decora- 
tion, and music must speak the name of Delsarte.' 1 
—Henrietta Russell. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

NOTES. 

A sculpture is a study of form with line for its domi- 
nant beauty. 

Painting represents form, substance, and surface — the 
three-fold properties of matter — by means of line, chia- 
roscuro, and color. 

A decoration is an expression or suggestion in line and 
color; and applied to an object is subordinate to its re- 
lation to that object. 

No matter how rough the workmanship, how vague 
the suggestion, a work which is in harmony with its en- 
vironment in color and true to its principle in line is 
beautiful. 

Realism is the lowest form of art and in a decoration 
should never exist ; as superimposed on the mass of an- 
other object, it should only suggest form and not have 
or seem to have depth or bulk of its own. 

It is to be regretted that the splendid and vigorous 
modelling of the modern Limoges wares should have 



notes. 239 

made this bad form of art so popular — fundamentally 
wrong artificial flowers in china, however well done they 
may be, are no less distasteful than artificial floAvers in 
wax or cloth. 

One should use the term " unprincipled " in Art with 
as much care as in character, as Art is rather more sub- 
tle in its methods than most people, and a bad thing 
well done is infinitely more dangerous than a good thing 
badly done. 

A decoration is only the part of a whole to which it 
must be subordinate, and it is weakness, not strength, to 
overstep its limitations. As room furnishing, a picture 
becomes a decoration and must be in harmony with the 
general effect — especially in color. 

There is nothing more beautiful in decorative quality 
than the flowering trees of spring — the apple, cherry, and 
dogwood. Splendid lines of trunk and stem, dark, some- 
times even grotesque, against masses of bloom which 
melt into the tender sky, almost the same tone ; so deli- 
cate, the shadow is not shade, but only richer depth of 
color. 

The beauty of stems is scarcely ever appreciated, ex- 
cept by the Japanese — the only artistic flower lovers. 
Their national flowers are the cherry and the chrysanthe- 
mum ; they make festivals for their blooming time, and 
almost every kakemono, bronze or lacquer bears wit- 
ness to their intense love and perfect knowledge. Much 
interesting work has been lately done in the Japanesque 
school. One might almost term it the romantic decora- 
tion as distinct from the classic and conventional, based 
solely on geometrical arrangement. 

Some of the old mansions about Washington Square, 
New York City, have been refitted with fine modern 
work. One of the best examples of good taste in carry- 
ing out a simple scheme of color has walls of dull green- 



240 A DELSAETEA1S- SCEAP-BOOK. 

gold, painted with bold arrangements of the apple and 
almond — whole trees with their twisted trunks and 
masses of blossom. The furniture is tawny plush like 
lion's skin, a few kakemonos hang on the walls, as there 
can be no pictures, and some fine rugs cover the floor. 
It is a study in green-gold. 

A golden room where it is always spring, 
The color gold, singing in minor chords 
Inlaid like some Wagnerian leit motif. 

Around — soft draperies where a thread of gold 
Outlines a thought, and line sweeps down to form 

The gorgeous full-fed Orient color passion. 
In glowing jars concentric in the shade — 
In Chinese glazes blazing 'gainst the dark 
Of teakwood forests . . . 

The Japanese design is realistic, becoming conven- 
tional only as it shapes itself into the limits of decora- 
tion. The art of the Persian is symbolic, now the sym- 
bol of a symbol. We cannot read, but only sense and 
feel the gorgeous color they have told their story in. 
We catch the tone, but not the articulations, yielding 
ourselves to a passionate dream of color without being 
held back by any story it may tell ; without looking in 
the corner for the name of the man who made it and 
basing our love for him on the fact that he is — not an 
Academician. The Persian has been most generous, has 
given us his work and not asked us to think of him. 

A life that has a rug for its expression : 
Content to weave its best emotions there — 
Knowing them never understood by those 
Who tread them down with modern insolence — 
Born innate with a sense we never learn — 
Glowing with passion silent and content, 
To weave in some dark cellar and to die 
That we may live attuned to higher harmony. 



NOTES. « 241 

There are other ways of copying than merely imitat- 
ing the lines of some work already done — that is the 
most direct, the simplest, and the least harmful, if the 
work copied be good. 

Many paint from Nature with only the spirit of the 
copyist— so many green leaves, so much green paint — a 
few facts, some minor details imitated first because 
they come last, without knowledge of principle or feel- 
ing of relation. One never feels that they have ex- 
pressed anything. The work they call finished gives a 
feeling of labor, their broader style— of ignorance or 
carelessness. ' 

But the most subtle, the most common among students 
of a higher class, is the ignorant imitation of the methods 
of a master without knowledge of the reasons that have 
caused him to adopt them as his means of expression — 
without study of the laws and details he may have con- 
sidered non-essential to truth — or thought, if the lan- 
guage which a great man has found best for his range 
of feeling is best suited for their needs and capacities. 

A great artist never disregarded a detail except through 
perfect knowledge and conscious pow r er ; and such is his 
strength of expression that we often feel most what he 
did not say. 

He sees all the tones of nature and selects the har- 
mony that may best simplify his sweep of vision. 

The pupil who has not studied the laws of growth 
and expression, who does not know there are such laws, 
but comes to the studio "to paint," seeing him disre- 
gard detail thinks it because it is "bold," or "stylish" 
— slashes in, leaves out details here and there without 
knowing the reasons why, or the complex suggestion of 
the master's style ; and thinks it a compliment when her 
friends cannot tell what her flowers are ; talks of " feel- 
ing," "values," etc., and says she paints in the "broad 
French school." 

Most of the pupils of the modern schools of technique 
belong to the latter class. 

Because a master does not draw in his pictures, but 
16 



242 A DELSARTEAN SCRAP-BOOK. 

covers with the flat of the charcoal and then rubs out the 
lights with a rag, or paints at once with a brush loaded 
with color, it is not because he despises drawing, but 
because he perfectly understands it, and is so sure of his 
power gained by years of patient study that he need not 
assert it ; his facility has become automatic and his draw- 
ing would be perfect if he never thought of it. He does 
not draw to show how well he can draw or paint to show 
how well he can paint, but because he has something to 
say and has perfect command over the means of express- 
ing it. 

Rossetti or Burne-Jones could paint flesh as superbly 
and roundly as the most brilliant salon-paralyzer ; they 
would have thought it supremely vulgar to have painted 
a Christ from a model strung up in a studio to call forth 
the remark — " splendid bit of flesh-painting.'" 

I think that it is an open question whether the real- 
istic flesh-painting now so much admired is either good, 
or high, or necessary ; if much soul has not gone out of 
our work by this devotion to skin, whether this painting 
of dog-skin and man-skin and Christ-skin is not rather 
blasphemous to the soul it covers and does not savor 
more of the studio receipt-book than the kneeling lover 
or student. 

It is not in catalogues, in description of Vatican or 
South Kensington treasures that we find thoughts on 
art. The lectures at schools and colleges are but the 
History of Art, what artists have done ; the studio work — 
how to do it. Never on the evolution of art-principles 
from the principles of nature. 

The artist is sure to get right in time. If he loves 
deeply and kneels reverently enough to mother Nature, 
she will kiss his eyelids into new vision. But the peo- 
ple ; those who need not do, they must be educated at 
least to know, at most to love — they can be critics and 
lovers. And how does a modern education fit them for 
it? An old professor with a stereopticon or a lot of pho- 
tographs, gives them lecture upon lecture on Greek and 
Roman art, Egyptian and Assyrian art, Christian and 



notes. 243 

" Pagan " art. Feeds them as they feed geese, by cram- 
ming facts down their throats with a stick ; so when the 
school-girl sees a modern painting, knowing it is neither 
Greek nor Assyrian, Egyptian nor Roman, and never 
having been told anything bnt the historical, chronolog- 
ical, anecdotal facts concerning art, can only say " how 
pretty," and pass on, wanting to paint on plush or satin. 

Box up magic-lantern slides and art-dictionaries, and 
take down your Bible ; to learn a lesson in methods of 
teaching from One who walked by the blue shores of 
Galilee and talked to the fishers of nature, until He made 
their lives beautiful — who spoke truth, not fact, parable, 
not precept. Take your Shakespeare, "the poet who 
has never once drawn a character to be met with in 
actual life — who has never once descended to a passion 
that is false, or a personage who is real ; " Goethe, who 
after writing one of the greatest psychological poems of 
any age gave us the "Metamorphoses of Plants," and 
devoted himself to the study of the anatomy of plants 
and animals. Take the essays of Emerson, of Thoreau, 
even Carlyle, who with all his grumbling does tell us 
that "the real well seen is the ideal." Study these 
dwellers near Nature, the greatest Art-teachers because 
the greatest Life-teachers, who knew of all that is good, 
and true, and beautiful to express. Study the patient 
and pathetic life of Francoise Delsarte, who chose 
poverty and obscurity that we might know how to ex- 
press our better and higher selves instead of the mere 
accidents of daily life. Then go to an art -school or 
studio : the first where students are trying to stipple or 
stump the Venus de Milo for a prize, the next, where 
they are learning flesh -receipts and texture-receipts, and 
method-receipts, think if all things to be expressed have 
been used up by the Assyrian, Greek or Roman ; and if 
we are rightly studying the means of expressing what is 
left, and pray for an art of the future that may include 
all science and embrace all nature, until we find " God's 
measures and man's measures identical in absolute 
truth." 



244 A DELSARTEAIn SCRAP-BOOK. 

• Tannhaiiser to Venus in the Venusberg— 
" O queen, O Goddess ! Let me go ! " — and now 
You've seen the world, the heavens, and the seas ! 
With stormy heart that leapt with fiercer joy 
To feel the storm-wind cut across your breast 
That once the spicy musk breeze lulled to sleep. 
Have known the land where life's intensest range 
Is circled with electric speed — and time 
Is measured by pedometers, not heart-beats, 
Where commerce is the art, and merchandise 
Is valued for intrinsic cost, not beauty, 
And dreams are waste of time, when time is money. 
Where all are peasants, freemen — all are kings, 
And every one may hope to touch a star 
If concentrated thought can bring it down, 
Or patient labor can climb up to it. 

Adieu ! — now back to dreamland ; with those eyes, 
Where all the drowsy East's traditions sleep. 
Back to the world of color, where e'en Death 
Joins hands with Beauty and sinks Lethe-ward, 
Red crowned with poppies, palms, and lotus-buds, 
The spoils of centuries treasured for their sleep. 
Art weeps them in her own lachrymatals, 
And Romance sculptures then sarcophagus — 

Ugliness bears the same relation to the material world 
as disease does to a perfect body. 

It is man's great crime against Nature. 

She has made all space beautiful. 

He defaces and mutilates her and offers an increase of 
speed, a race with time, for an apology. 

He can only flee, he dare not rest or look behind. 

In studying the change from the splendid art of past 
time to the extensive manufacture of the present, the 
most important thing to be noticed is the change in the 
social position of the people. 

Art-condition has its deepest root in race-condition. 

The almost universal ugliness of modern life ; the enor- 
mous demand must always make of art an industry, and 









NOTES. 245 

of industry a manufacture — a sort of " watered stock " 
principle which is death to Art. 

Ugly things are so extravagant — deformed, unrelated, 
they stand on people's mantel-pieces waiting for some 
one with courage enough to kick them out of doors, al- 
though they have " cost money." 

A pious lady who had never been to a theatre, de- 
nounced Sarah Bernhardt as the " modern Delilah, who 
was coming here to destroy the American youth, 11 and 
said, it was " the duty of every woman in the land to rise 
up and drive her from our coasts.' 1 When the modern 
Delilah came, undismayed by the angry aprons shaken 
at her, a young foreigner to whom the lady had shown 
some kindness invited her daughter to attend the thea- 
tre. The agonized mother hurried to a friend — " What 
shall I do ? — Monsieur Legno has invited Mary to go to 
see Sarah Bernhardt! and he has bought the tickets 11 '" 
All the evening she paced the floor, weeping — " I don^ 
know if I have done right — I don't know if I have done 
right — but he had bought the tickets. 11 

We keep many things in our houses that we know are 
bad, simply because Ave have bought the tickets. Take 
down your vase with the artificial china flowers stuck 
over it and give it to the boys for a target ; tell them 
why you do it ; it cost twenty dollars perhaps, but you 
are a hero and a reformer cheap. Let us hope the time 
will soon come when you cannot be both so easily. 

London is a great aggregate of buildings ; a city be- 
cause so many thousand houses are huddled together 
without plan, without order, a huge monster crouching 
beside the Thames, sending up smoke to meet fog, which 
descends cold and gray to cover a city equally chill and 
colorless. 

We all hate London, and yet we must all love London. 
No people in the world know how to live as well as its 
people. While many fading splendors of the Old World 
survive to make us despair at their perfect beauty, it is 
from England that we have had the first impulse to 



246 A DELSARTEA3T SCRAP-BOOK. 

make ugly things, necessary things, which seemed a part 
of modern life we could not throw away (and had no fog 
to cover) — beautiful. 

Modern life is like London, an aggregate related by 
necessity, not beauty. Yet it is London that has given 
us hope. 

The English Renaissance, although it needed the ad- 
vertisement of ridicule to suit it to modern times, has 
done more to develop a sense of a higher beauty in the 
expression of life than has any social reform the world 
has ever known. 

In olden time a city, a state, a kingdom, was an entity. 
A king or a duke, surrounded by his court, from which 
spread circle upon circle of dependents. The position, 
the duties, the growth of each marked by immutable 
law. If a noble was warlike his followers were warlike. 
If in times of peace he loved the arts, they loved the 
arts, worked in them, and, as any special production 
was intended for him alone no time, no labor need be 
spared to make it worthy the favor of the liege lord. 
He in return honored the workman and artist, gave 
them gifts, ennobled them. Indeed, in Art they found 
their only hope of ennoblement, of true equality, of lib- 
eration from the barriers of their condition. 

In this London, this palace of drift-wood, we find a 
band of art lovers and art workers who hold that the 
individual home must be an expression of the individual 
life. 

That when each sits on a throne so grand — ruled by 
" His Majesty Myself " — he must study to beautify and 
not to debase his dominion ; that if he indeed be master, 
the only thing that will save him from seeming the more 
the servant will be to invite Art to his court. 

Conventionality has almost reduced us to rigid black 
and white. Ancient life was a blaze of color. The peo- 
ple lived in it, of course they loved it. The street scenes 
were moving pictures. Every station had its appropri- 
ate costume, and no one thought of the servile imitation 



notes. 247 

of special fashion which makes our dress to-day almost 
a dead level of mediocrity. 

Such close relation to Art made her oon camarade 
with the poorest. They loved and knew her, and she 
dwelt with them. Good taste became an inherited in- 
stinct — not a hot-house production. 

The Italians all love music. Once in crossing the ocean, 
I talked with a party of them, decoyed from their homes 
for the sake of their steerage passage money, wild with 
hopes of a future El Dorado. 

They had left Naples, beautiful, laughing Naples, who 
embraces the most wretched, lets him dance on her sun- 
kissed shore and bathe in her blue waters, feeds him for 
nothing with chestnuts and ripe figs and gives him a 
seat in her theatre for half a franc. 

They were going to work in a coal mine, underground, 
in a town I had never heard of, in Illinois. They asked 
me if there would be an opera house there ? Why, they 
would never hear a bird sing. They sat there in the 
ocean wind, perhaps the last pure air that would lift the 
black curls from their handsome faces. Sat there in the 
summer sun that kissed them good-by, and talked of 
Naples, of life, of the opera. They could not read or 
write, they had heard more operas than I ever had and 
knew them by heart. They were dark and passionate, 
had flashed out their dirk knives one day when they 
quarrelled with each other. They were beautiful. One 
could not but feel the beauty they had loved and lived 
in, dirty perhaps, but outside, not in, had given them a 
quality we do not learn from our books. Something 
that, although we think them vile and low, do not envy 
and would not change with them, our life lacks and if 
added to all Ave have would make us happier and better. 
A better expression to die with on one's face perhaps. 
" Vedi Napoli, epoi morir! ' r Alas ! a modern contractor 
had found them. They were going to see Illinois " and 
then to die.*" 

Very few people ever really see the works of the old 
masters. Art only shows herself to a lover, and her great- 



248 A DELSAETEAN SCEAP-BOOK. 

est power of concealment is when people put on specta- 
cles. She is shamelessly exposed in galleries to the 
crowd, but she need not blush, the crowd is blind; and 
while they are studying to see if her nails are well 
trimmed, and telling what " Buskin says " about her, she 
is having most lovely interviews with one who stands 
apart and silent. 

Without any knowledge of the laws of expression, or 
more fundamentally, of the principles of nature — for all 
spiritual truths are founded on physical laws — the ordi- 
nary sight-seer (a dreadful and expressive word ! ) clogs 
his feelings with a mass of mental facts and details about 
the work or the maker — something he has read or heard, 
of historical relation, or personal anecdote ; looks up all 
the authorities and perhaps finishes off with a little 
rhapsody of his own; more from duty than feeling — 
suggestive of feeling, perhaps, but with an embarrass- 
ment which expresses his self-consciousness of artistic 
awkwardness. 

His eyes " are made the fools o' the other senses," when 
they might be " worth all the rest." 

"It has been said — " "it is considered to be — " "he 
painted four years on Mona Lisa and then thought it 
unfinished — " " Charles V. picked up his paint-brush," 
etc., etc. 

Our stranger buys a mass of photographs, takes them 
home, and repeats the same interesting guide-book in- 
formation; thinks himself an art-critic and connoisseur; 
and will be thought so, no doubt, by his less fortunate 
friends who do not possess photographs and guide-books 
— and all because when he was a little boy they made 
him draw straight lines, and never told him anything 
about Art. 

A picture we may pass by and seldom study or feel. 
It tells a story and we go to it when we want to be inter- 
ested. The color of our walls we dwell in, it surrounds 
us as sunlight and atmosphere ; it does not speak, but 
envelop us, it forms our material environment and is 
as subtle in its effects as our spiritual environment. 

Color is the moral element of the material world. 



NOTES. 249 

Unrelated things are always ugly — a load of furniture 
for example. 

All effects in decorative art are studies of the relation 
of things. We may buy ten different masterpieces and 
unrelated they are ridiculous. Art is not fooled or bought. 
Place her in false relation to one and she flies from all. 

Even poverty is beautiful when harmonious. 

If we cannot receive something from a picture and give 
something to it, it does not belong to us, has not to do 
with us — we are two separate things and had best pass on. 

The savage, environed by nature, is in a better state 
for art-work than the average boy here, with his sur- 
roundings either stupid or ridiculous. Artistically speak- 
ing, modern life is a failure; with immense resources of 
all kinds, we have grown so far from our mother Nature, 
that, while a Zulu looks like a bronze statue and we may 
find in an Indian, chest and poise like an Apollo — our 
own beautiful race neither stand, move nor speak cor- 
rectly, that is, with a correct knowledge of the proper 
uses of their physical development, nor proper remedy 
for the physical deformity we have gained by thinking 
of mental culture only. 

Civilization has been also a failure with the Indian, 
but it was because it did not know what to give him or 
what to do with him as undeveloped material. It failed 
solely in trying to make a white man out of a red one. 

The early aboriginal art has almost always fine quali- 
ties, as man in his first attempts to picture endeavored 
to symbolize his surroundings, and however rude the 
workmanship the work is crudely grand. 

The ornamental borders — conventions of natural lines 
— of wave motions and radiations — their nearness to 
nature makes them great, and the art immediately after 
a nation has emerged from a savage state is always sub- 
lime. 

The temples hewn from the solid rock; the gigantic 
gods symbolizing nature's forces ; magnificent mytholo- 
gies with ruggedness of workmanship and splendor of 



250 A DELSAKTEAI* SCKAP-BOOK. 

idea, which will survive all annihilations, even of the 
races to which they belonged. 

We can never return to nature, but we can at least 
attain to a perfect understanding of that which we have 
inherited. Truth is a spiral which ascends from earth 
to heaven, and the facts that hang like withered leaves 
on the ends of dead branches are not Art. 

Edmund Russell. 



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an elevating moral tone for which the works of Bjornson 
are noted. 

There is an impressiveness about the pages that produces a wonder- 
ful effect upon the reader. We have not read a more powerful book im 
a long time. — Memphis Commercial. 

There are descriptions which certainly belong to the best and 
cleverest things our literature ever produced. It would be difficult to 
find anything more tender, soft and iefined. — London Athen&um. 

It is vigorous terse and attractive in style, and strong in character 
drawing. — Literary World. 

The story is one of interest and eloquence both in studies of char- 
acter and descriptions. — The Critic. 

All should read this writer's works, and whoever misses them 
oasses gems. — Western Banner. 

For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price, by the Publishers, 
UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

T. O. Box, 1992. 150 Worth Street, New York. 



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